Benin earthworks (iya)
Murallas y fosos de Benín (iya)
- Date
- c. 800-1460 · confidence low
- Place
- Benin City, Edo, Nigeria
- Credited to
- Edo people (Kingdom of Benin)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A network of earthen ramparts and ditches that delimited villages and fields and culminated in the enclosure of the royal city. It is one of the largest pre-industrial earthworks in the world.
Patrick Darling estimated some 16,000 km of ramparts in the region; the figure and the chronology are disputed. The city's inner moat is attributed to Oba Ewuare (c. 1460).
What it led to
- the territorial organisation of the kingdom of Benin
- defence of the royal capital
- the planned urbanism of Benin City