Ruins🏰 FortificationMiddle Ages & early modern
Walls of Benin
The earthworks attest to extensive collective labour and complex spatial organisation in a West African kingdom. Their history is closely connected with colonial destruction and contemporary efforts to preserve Edo heritage.
Facts
- Place
- Benin City, Nigeria
- Civilisation / patron
- Kingdom of Benin, Edo people
- Built
- c. 1200 – 1600
- Destroyed
- 1897 · Destroyed during the British punitive expedition; later urban development damaged further sections.
- Status
- Ruins
History
Over many generations, ramparts and deep ditches were built around Benin City and nearby settlements. These earthworks, locally known as iya, marked boundaries and supported the organisation and defence of the kingdom. The exact construction chronology and total extent of the network cannot be established with certainty. During the British punitive expedition of 1897, parts of the city and its defences were destroyed; later urban expansion damaged many remaining sections.
More from: Middle Ages & early modern
- Hagia Sophia
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
- Chichén Itzá
- Angkor Wat
- Borobudur
- Great Zimbabwe
- Mapungubwe
- Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela
- Moai of Rapa Nui
- Forbidden City
- Alhambra
- Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris
- Cologne Cathedral
- Machu Picchu
- Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple
- Ayutthaya Historical Park
- Himeji Castle
- Saint Basil’s Cathedral
- Grand Place, Brussels
- Taj Mahal
- Windmills of Kinderdijk
Sources: Wikipedia — Muren van Benin