Benin City

Benin City

Benin City is Edo State's capital and largest city. The city lies on a branch of the Benin River and is located along the main routes from Lagos to the eastern states. The Benin City National Museum, located in the central Kings Square, follows in the footsteps of the Benin Empire and displays terracotta sculptures. Oba's Palace is famous for the bronze plaques that once decorated its walls, showing historical events and court life. The city was the principal settlement of the Edo Kingdom of Benin, which prospered from the 13th century to the 19th century. Over the centuries it maintained important trade links with Portugal before it was captured, sacked and burnt by a British punitive expedition in 1897. Several bronze statues in the Benin City Palace, collectively known as the Benin Bronzes, were stolen by the British, who gradually colonized the area after their victory, and eventually annexed the region to Colonial Nigeria. The Benin Bronzes are a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures which decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin. Taken together, the objects constitute the best examples of Beninese art and were made by artists of the Edo people from the thirteenth century onwards. The plaques, called Ama in the Edo language, represent scenes or themes from the history of the Kingdom. The Edo people, a people of the city, have one of the wealthiest dress cultures on the African continent and are famous for their beads, body markings, bangles, anklets, raffia work and self-sufficient cultivation of yams, plantains and cassava.