The Edo kingdom of Benin built one of Africa’s great courts — a city ringed by the largest earthworks on earth, guilds of bronze-casters producing art that rivals the Renaissance, and an Oba whose authority was absolute. In 1897 a British expedition burned the city and carried the bronzes to London. The argument about who owns them has never stopped since.
Benin City ★Niger DeltaGuinea coast Greatest extent — stylized map 1180Edo state crystallizes1440sEwuare rebuilds Benin1486Portuguese arrive1897Benin City falls2022Bronzes come home Rise · zenith · fall The rise The Edo state crystallized around the twelfth century, and its decisive figure was Ewuare the Great, who took the throne in the 1440s. Ewuare rebuilt the capital as a planned city — broad straight avenues, a palace complex of courtyards — and ringed it with walls and moats on a staggering scale: the Benin earthworks ran some 16,000 kilometers in total, among the largest human constructions on the planet, built up over centuries by communal labor.
