Man dating sites in Benin Nigeria

What remains of the wall itself continues to be torn down for real estate developments. They cover 2, sq. 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 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet. Ethnomathematician Ron Eglash has discussed the planned layout of the city using fractals as the basis, not only in the city itself and the villages but even in the rooms of houses.

He commented that "When Europeans first came to Africa, they considered the architecture very disorganised and thus primitive. Benin city in the 17th century. Excavations at Benin City have revealed that it was already flourishing around CE. In , Oba Ewuare , also known as Ewuare the Great, came to power and expanded the borders of the former city-state.

It was only at this time that the administrative centre of the kingdom began to be referred to as Ubinu after the Portuguese word and corrupted to Bini by the Itsekhiri , Urhobo and Edo who all lived together in the royal administrative centre of the kingdom. The Portuguese who arrived in an expedition led by Joao Afonso de Aveiro in would refer to it as Benin and the centre would become known as Benin City.

The Kingdom of Benin eventually gained political strength and ascendancy over much of what is now mid-western Nigeria. By the seventeenth century, the kingdom fell into decline following constant civil wars and disputes over the kingship. Forty-one female skeletons thrown into a pit were discovered by the archaeologist Graham Connah.

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These findings indicate that human sacrifice took place in Benin City since the thirteenth century CE. But many of the sensationalist accounts of the sacrifices, says historian J. Graham, are largely exaggerated or based on rumour and speculation. He says that all of the evidence "points to a limited, ritual custom of human sacrifice. Humans were sacrificed in an annual ritual in honour of the god of iron, where warriors from Benin City would perform an acrobatic dance while suspended from the trees. The ritual recalled a mythical war against the sky. Sacrifices of a man, a woman, a goat, a cow and a ram were also made to a god quite literally called "the king of death.

There were two separate annual series of rites that honoured past Obas. Sacrifices were performed every fifth day. At the end of each series of rites, the current Oba's own father was honoured with a public festival. During the festival, twelve criminals, chosen from a prison where the worst criminals were held, were sacrificed.

By the end of the eighteenth century, three to four people were sacrificed at the mouth of the Benin River annually, to attract European trade. At the burial rituals of Obas, human sacrifice was present; bodyguards of the Oba include those sacrificed. Additionally, wives and slaves of the Oba committed suicide, so that they could continue serving him in the afterlife. The monarchy of Benin was hereditary ; the eldest son was to become the new Oba. In order to validate the succession of the kingship, the eldest son had to bury his father and perform elaborate rituals.

If the eldest son failed to complete these tasks, the eldest son might be disqualified from becoming king. After the son was installed as king, his mother - after having been invested with the title of Iyoba - was transferred to a palace just outside Benin City, in a place called Uselu. The mother held a considerable amount of power; she was, however, never allowed to meet her son — who was now a divine ruler — again. In Benin, the Oba was seen as divine. The Oba's divinity and sacredness was the focal point of the kingship. The Oba was shrouded in mystery; he only left his palace on ceremonial occasions.

It was previously punishable by death to assert that the Oba performed human acts, such as eating, sleeping, dying or washing. The Oba was also credited with having magical powers. The Oba had become the mount of power within the region. Oba Ewuare, the first Golden Age Oba, is credited with turning Benin City into a city-state from a military fortress built by the Ogisos, protected by moats and walls.

It was from this bastion that he launched his military campaigns and began the expansion of the kingdom from the Edo-speaking heartlands. A series of walls marked the incremental growth of the sacred city from AD until its decline in the 16th century. This was excavated in the early s by Graham Connah. Connah estimated that its construction if spread out over five dry seasons, would have required a workforce of 1, laborers working ten hours a day seven days a week.

Ewuare also added great thoroughfares and erected nine fortified gateways. These were apparently raised to mark out territories for towns and cities. Thirteen years after Ewuare's death, tales of Benin's splendors lured more Portuguese traders to the city gates. At its height, Benin dominated trade along the entire coastline from the Western Niger Delta, through Lagos to the kingdom of Great Accra modern-day Ghana. The present-day Republic of Benin, formerly Dahomey, decided to choose the name of this bight as the name of its country. The state developed an advanced artistic culture, especially in its famous artifacts of bronze, iron and ivory.

These include bronze wall plaques and life-sized bronze heads depicting the Obas and Iyobas of Benin. Before trade and contact with Europeans, supplies of metal were very scarce in Benin and writing was not present.

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After the Kingdom of Benin began trading with Europeans at the end of the 15th century CE, the quantity of bronze castings and thickness of casting had greatly increased; before trade with Europeans, the blades were incredibly thin and only wealthy elites could afford work with these metals that were regarded as precious. A strong mercantile relationship developed, with the Edo trading slaves and tropical products such as ivory , pepper and palm oil for European goods such as manillas and guns. In the early 16th century, the Oba sent an ambassador to Lisbon , and the king of Portugal sent Christian missionaries to Benin City.

Some residents of Benin City could still speak a pidgin Portuguese in the late 19th century. The first English expedition to Benin was in , and significant trading developed between England and Benin based on the export of ivory, palm oil, pepper, and later slaves. Visitors in the 16th and 19th centuries brought back to Europe tales of "Great Benin", a fabulous city of noble buildings, ruled over by a powerful king. A fanciful engraving of the settlement was made by a Dutch illustrator from descriptions alone and was shown in Olfert Dapper 's Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten , published in Amsterdam in The king's court is square and located on the right-hand side of the city, as one enters it through the gate of Gotton.

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It is about the same size as the city of Haarlem and entirely surrounded by a special wall, comparable to the one which encircles the town. It is divided into many magnificent palaces, houses and apartments of the courtiers, and comprises beautiful and long squares with galleries, about as large as the Exchange at Amsterdam. The buildings are of different sizes however, resting on wooden pillars, from top to bottom lined with copper casts, on which pictures of their war exploits and battles are engraved. All of them are being very well maintained. Most of the buildings within this court are covered with palm leaves, instead of with square planks, and every roof is adorned with a small spired tower, on which casted copper birds are standing, being very artfully sculpted and lifelike with their wings spread.

Another Dutch traveler, David van Nyendael , visited Benin in and also wrote an account of the kingdom. Nyendael's description was published in as an appendix to Willem Bosman 's Nauwkeurige beschryving van de Guinese goud-, tand- en slave-kust. The inhabitants of the Benin are in general a kind and polite people, of whom one with kindness might get everything he desires.

Whatever might be offered to them out of politeness, will always be doubled in return. However, they want their politeness to be returned with likewise courtesy as well, without the appearance of any disappointment or rudeness, and rightly so. To be sure, trying to take anything from them with force or violence, would be as if one tries to reach out to the Moon and will never be left unreckoned. When it comes to trade, they are very strict and will not suffer the slightest infringement of their customs, not even a iota can be changed.

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Though, when one is willing to accept these customs, they are very easy-going and will cooperate in every way possible to reach an agreement. Given this characterization of the Benin culture, it might be understood that the Oba did not accept any colonial aspirations. As soon as the Oba began to suspect Britain of larger colonial designs, it ceased communications with them until the British Expedition in , when troops of that country captured, burned, and looted Benin City as part of a punitive mission, which brought the kingdom's imperial era to an end.

Military operations relied on a well trained disciplined force. The monarch of the realm served as supreme military commander. Beneath him were subordinate generalissimos, the Ezomo , the Iyase , and others who supervised a Metropolitan Regiment based in the capital, and a Royal Regiment made up of hand-picked warriors that also served as bodyguards. Benin's queen mother, the Iyoba , also retained her own regiment - the "Queen's Own". The Metropolitan and Royal regiments were relatively stable semi-permanent or permanent formations.

The Village Regiments provided the bulk of the fighting force and were mobilized as needed, sending contingents of warriors upon the command of the king and his generals.