Walls of Benin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Depiction of Benin City from 1668. In the horizontal center of the picture, a wall-like structure can be seen in front of the city, which could be the fortification.

The walls of Benin ( edo : Iya German: Graben or Tal ; English also Benin Moats or Benin Walls ) were a complex system of earthworks made of earth walls with ditches that served as a defense system for the capital of the Kingdom of Benin , Benin City in Edo in present-day Nigeria were created.

Until they were destroyed by the British colonial troops in 1897, they were the largest man-made structure and the largest earthworks in the world before the Great Wall of China . It enclosed a common land of 6,500 km². Its length included over 16,000 km of earth boundaries. The plants have a geographical extension of 6 ° to 7 ° north longitude and 5 ° 17 'to 6 ° 12' east latitude. Construction began in 800 BC and lasted until the middle of the 15th century.

construction

The walls were built as a moat and dam structure. The dam formed an inner city moat, while the excavated earth was solidified and used to make the ramparts. Palisades , wooden fences or hedges were laid out as additional barriers on the crown of the wall . The facilities were overgrown to protect against erosion during the regular heavy rains. The trenches were partly in front of or behind the ramparts. The whole earthwork system is staggered.

Innermost plant

The innermost complex was laid out as a self-contained defense structure around the city and the royal palace. The rectangular complex has sides of about 2.75 km and a circumference of 11 km and enclosed an area of ​​7.5 m². The amount of the conditioning measure of grave sole to the rampart 15 to 20 m, the width of ditch and was 35 m to 40 This plant is about 1450 by Oba (King) Ewuare have been built, as evidenced by 14C dating of Had samples from the innermost wall confirmed. The inner ramparts had nine gates, seven of which can still be located relatively safely today. None of the surviving European reports mentioned ongoing construction activities, which is why it can be assumed that the facilities were completed before 1485.

Second and third plant

These systems connect directly to the inner wall. According to oral tradition, this should Oba Oguola have been built around the 1280th These ramparts included the residences and settlements of the most important direct sub-kings (kingmakers) such as the villages of Urubi, Uzebu, Iduvoloto, Iduvoliha and Etete. To the north, a protected path led to the Ikpoba River to secure the water supply. The lower height of the earthworks compared to the inner structure, 6 to 8 m from the bottom of the trench to the wall crest, was probably due to the older age and the longer period of erosion on the structure.

More earthworks

In addition to the aforementioned main works, there were numerous others that were directly connected to them, such as the Ugbor-Obe, Oka, Idogbo Ulegun Utesi, Oka Useni Oka n'Evbuorhan, Ukhun plants. In the south the plants Uroho, Evbonikho, Ologbo, Ugbenu. In the southwest: Gwato. In the north: Okhunmwun, Iwu, Iyowa, Ekiadolor, Oluku and Ora and Udo in the northwest. The NIFOR plant near Uwan was discovered in 1939 during the construction of the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) and examined more closely. Other facilities are on Ifon Road. There are still other, as yet undiscovered plants to be expected.

destruction

The walls of Benin were ravaged by the British in 1897. A few parts of the wall still remain in Edo, while the materials are used by the local residents, the Edo ( Bini ), for building purposes. They will also continue to be torn down as part of property developments.

Lore

The walls of Benin have been known in Europe since around 1500 after the Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira briefly described the structure during a trip:

“一 This city is 4 - 5 km long from gate to gate; it has no wall, but is surrounded by a large, very wide and deep moat, which is sufficient for its defense ”

The archaeologist Graham Connah comments on Pereira's statement " no wall " that, according to the definition at the time in Europe, earthworks were not referred to as walls.

Another description comes from the Dutch researcher Dierick Ruiters around 1600:

"一 At the gate where I entered on horseback, I saw a very high bulwark, very thick of earth, with a very deep broad ditch, but it was dry, and full of high trees ... That gate is a reasonable good gate , made of wood in their manner, which is to be shut, and there always there is watch holden. "

“At the gate through which I entered the city, I saw a very high and mighty embankment with a very deep, wide ditch, but this was dry and full of tall trees ... This gate is a very good wooden gate in the local style that can be closed and is always guarded. "

The ethnomathematician Ron Eglash compared the planned design of the city on the basis of fractals , not only in the city itself and in the villages, but even in the rooms of the houses. He commented: " When Europeans first came to Africa they thought architecture was very disorganized and therefore primitive. It never occurred to them that Africans might have used a form of mathematics that they had not even discovered had ".

meaning

The city's walls are the world's largest man-made structure. The New Scientist explained:

“They extend for some 16,000 kilometers in all, in a mosaic of more than 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. They cover 6,500 square kilometers and were all dug by the Edo people. In all, they are four times longer than the Great Wall of China, and consumed a hundred times more material than the Great Pyramid of Cheops. They took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet. "

“They extend in a mosaic of over 500 interconnected settlement boundaries, a total of 16,000 km. They cover 6500 km² and were completely dug by the Edo. In total, they are four times longer than the Great Wall in China and a hundred times as much material was used as in the Cheops pyramid . The earthworks took an estimated 150 million hours and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet. "

The remains of the earthworks have been under monument protection as a national cultural monument since 1961 , but so far hardly any conservation measures have been undertaken, and the remains that have been preserved have not yet been fully recorded and mapped . Disinterest on the part of the population and responsible authorities also endangers the existence of the ramparts. The Benin Moat Foundation was founded in order to promote the protection of the facilities and to raise awareness of their cultural and historical significance among the population . On 1 November 1995, the walls of Benin for acceptance as were UNESCO - World Heritage proposed.

literature

  • Peter M. Roese: earth walls and ditches in the former kingdom of Benin . In: Anthropos . No. 76 , 1981, ISSN  0257-9774 , pp. 166-209 , JSTOR : 40460296 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Benin Iya / Sungbo 's Eredo. In: World Heritage Convention - Tentative List. UNESCO, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Kit W. Wesler: Historical archeology in Nigeria. Africa World Press, 1998, ISBN 0-86543-610-X , pp. 143-144.
  3. a b Fred Pearce : African Queen . In: New Scientist. September 11, 1999, Issue 2203.
  4. a b c d Peter M. Roese: earth walls and ditches in the former kingdom of Benin . In: Anthropos . No. 76 , 1981, ISSN  0257-9774 , pp. 166-209 , JSTOR : 40460296 .
  5. The moats and walls of Benin. on: beninmoatfoundation.org . Archived from the original on March 3, 2012 ; Retrieved June 3, 2014 . [ The moats and walls of Benin. ] at: beninmoatfoundation.org
  6. Ancient Benin City Ramparts and Moats. at: wysinger.homestead.com
  7. Thomas Hodgkin: Nigerian Perspectives: An Historical Anthology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1960, ISBN 978-0-19-215434-7 , pp. 93 (English).
  8. ^ A b Graham Connah: New Light on the Benin City Walls . In: Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria . No. 3 , June 1967, ISSN  0018-2540 , pp. 597-599 , JSTOR : 41856902 (English).
  9. Thomas Hodgkin: Nigerian Perspectives: An Historical Anthology . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1960, ISBN 978-0-19-215434-7 , pp. 120 (English).
  10. Mawuna Koutonin: Story of cities # 5: Benin City, the mighty medieval capital now lost without trace . In: The Guardian . March 18, 2016 (English, theguardian.com [accessed March 29, 2020]).
  11. ^ The Benin Moat Foundation. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .