Thread by @cobbo3

The wall network of Benin City was collectively 4 times longer than the Great Wall of China and consumed roughly 100 times more material to build than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt 1/5
humanprogress.org/centers-of-pro…

Benin City was also notably AMONG THE FIRST urban centres to have a likeness of street lighting. There were large metal lamps that burned palm oil, standing many feet high, placed around the city 2/5

The Benin wall network extended for some 16,000 kilometres in all. Dug by the Edo people, they took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet 3/5

If you could visit Benin City, which was the capital of the Benin Empire, in its golden age, in the 17th century, you would observe a city so orderly that theft was practically unthinkable within its walls 4/5

After centuries, the Walls of Benin fell to British troops in 1897 during a “punitive expedition”. The Benin Empire—became part of the British Empire. Benin City, today capital of Edo State, became part of Nigeria in 1960 - 5/5
humanprogress.org/centers-of-pro…

Sorry, the accurate photo/illustration of a section of the Benin City wall.