Sungbo’s Eredo – Nigeria’s Hidden Wonder

Sungbo's Eredo – Africa's largest single ancient monument is situated
off the main road in rain forest, south-western Nigeria, Sungbo's
Eredo is one of the largest monuments in sub-Saharan Africa. It's a
100-mile-long wall and moat whose construction is believed to have
began a millennium ago.

The Eredo, which encloses an area about 25 miles from south to north
and 22 miles from west to east, is only about an hour northeast of
Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital.

The monument was erected around a kingdom of the Yoruba – one of the
three main ethnic groups in present-day Nigeria – and surrounds
several towns and villages. The Sungbo's Eredo earthen bank rises 70
feet in the air from the bottom of a wide ditch, its reddish, vertical
wall glistening with patches of moss and it encloses an area of about
25 miles from south to north.

Sungbo's Eredo over the last decades has been repeatedly popularised
by a team of Nigerian and British archaeologists and preservationists
who have succeeded in mapping the structure after the work of an
earlier archaeologist piqued the curiosity of Patrick Darling, an
archaeologist at Bournemouth University in Britain. Still, this
outstanding monument, a witness of ancient West African rain forest
states, is waiting to take its well-earned role in history books just
like numerous other lesser known monuments on this planet.

The monument was submitted into UNESCO World Heritage's tentative list
in 1995 by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments under
Cultural category in criteria: (ii),(iii), (iv) and (v) of UNESCO
World Heritage submission guidelines.

Criteria of submission

*.(ii):To exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a
span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments
in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or
landscape design;

*.(iii):To bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a
cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has
disappeared;

*.(iv):To be an outstanding example of a type of building,
architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates
(a) significant stage(s) in human history;

*.(V):To be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement,
land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or
cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when
it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change; The
protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are
also important considerations. Since 1992 significant interactions
between people and the natural environment have been recognized as
cultural landscapes.

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