Gazargamo

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Gazargamo was the capital of the Bornu Empire from around 1460 to 1809. The city was 150 km west of Lake Chad in the Komadugu Yobe Valley in the northeast of present-day Nigeria . The impressive remains of the 6.6 km long city wall, which in some places still reaches a height of four meters, and the moat can still be seen today. The city was originally built by King Ali Gaji (1455–1487) after the expulsion of the last representatives of the Dawudid branch of the Sefuwa to consolidate his rule over Bornu.

The city was an important trade and scholarly center with a population of up to 20,000.

After several attacks, the city was conquered by the Fulani jihadists in 1809 and destroyed to such an extent that it was later never inhabited again.

bibliography

  • Barth, Heinrich : Reisen und Entdeckungen in Nord- und Central-Afrika , 5 vols. Gotha 1857-8, reprint 2005 (here vol. 4, pp. 22-24).
  • Louis Brenner: The Shehus of Kukawa , Oxford 1973 (here pp. 20, 32-34).
  • Lange, Dierk: A Sudanic Chronicle: the Borno Expeditions of Idrīs Alauma , Wiesbaden 1987 (here pp. 114–117).

Coordinates: 13 ° 2 ′ 50 ″  N , 12 ° 13 ′ 40 ″  E