🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Zilum (Chad Basin Proto-city)
Iron Age Sahel / Nok contemporary (550–350 BCE) · Gajiganna culture
12-ha 550 BCE Gajiganna proto-city with 5-m ditch and early Sahelian iron furnace.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Daima (Lake Chad Mound)
Neolithic to Late Iron (1800 BCE–1500 CE) · Hadjer Lamis / Kotoko ancestral
3-m 115×85 m stratified mound establishing Chad Basin Neolithic-to-Iron sequence 1800 BCE–1500 CE.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Archaeological wonder
Turunku
Iron Age Nok Culture (500 BCE–500 CE; iron from 550 BCE) · Nok Culture
Turunku in Kaduna's Nok Valley is a Nok Culture iron-smelting precinct and terracotta site, 500 BCE–500 CE, revealing sub-Saharan Africa's earliest iron (c.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Archaeological wonder
Dala Hill
Iron Age to Modern (c. 400–1900 CE; ritual ongoing) · Iron Age (Early Kano) / Hausa / Fulani
Dala Hill (Goron Dutse pair) is Kano's 534-m granite inselberg nucleus where Kano city was founded by Dala Iron Age smiths (c. 400 CE) before Hausa walling, with 999-step stair.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Rock art
Kainji Rock Art and Mounds
MSA to Iron Age (50,000 BCE–1800 CE; rock art 2000 BCE–500 CE) · MSA / Kintampo-related / Iron Age (Borgawa)
Kainji shoreline and islands host Middle Stone Age to Iron Age rock shelters with geometric rock art and 2,000-year mound settlements along Niger River, inundated partially 1968 by Kainji Dam.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Kajuru Hill Settlement
Iron Age to Late Medieval (500 BCE–1800 CE) · Nok–Koro–Atyap continuum
Kajuru Hills are dramatic inselberg hillforts above southern Kaduna plain, occupied Nok-terminal to Koro–Atyap phases 500 BCE–1800 CE, with dry-stone terracing and hilltop granaries akin to Sukur's…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Daura Kusugu Pondfield (Bayajida Well)
Medieval Hausa (Bakwai period, 9th–15th c. CE) · Hausa (Daura, Hausa Bakwai)
Sacred pondfield where Bayajida slew snake Sarki (Daura origin).
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Kwiambana Hillfort (Zamfara) – Stone-Walled Escarpment Town
Late Iron Age / Historic Hausa · Hausa / Katsinawa refugees
Huge dry-stone perimeter walls (3 km) enclosing plateau hilltown on brink of Kayra escarpment, refuge for Katsina peoples during 18th–19th c Fulani jihads.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Gwoza Hills Settlements
Iron Age to present (500 BCE–present) · Mandara / Wandala / Kanuri
Mandara terrace villages with 10 km stone terraces and iron forges.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Gajiganna Culture Complex (Borno)
Chad Basin Late Stone Age · Gajiganna culture
Urn-field mound complex defining Gajiganna culture bridging Saharan and sub-Saharan pastoralism before Kanem.