The Great Wall of Africa: the Empire of Benin's 10,000 Mile Long Wall

The Great Wall of Africa: the Empire of Benin's 10,000 Mile Long Wall PDF Author: Maurice Martinez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 135

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Book Description
Nestled in the southern section of modern-day Nigeria are the remnants of a civilization so vast that one of its crowning achievements has never been matched by any civilization that has ever existed on the planet--including all modern societies. Archeologically known as the Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan, the Great Wall of Africa, also known as the Great Wall of Benin is almost 10,000 miles long and at some points reaches more than 60 feet in height. Even though it holds a place in the 1982 Guinness Book of World Records as the most massive structure that has ever been constructed, almost no one outside of a select few archeologists and specialists has heard of its enormous breadth. This book attempts to change that forever.The Great Wall of Africa or Great Wall of Benin actually consists of a series of linear earthworks, many of them circular, some straight, some which stand on their own, and others that interconnect across a large area of Southern Nigeria. The Great Wall of Africa, like the Great Wall of China, is not a single wall, but a series of separate walls. Until the writing of this book, and another that I authored called: From Man To Superman: Dr. John Henrik Clarke vs. Herman Cain, the Great Wall of Africa, which stretches 9,941 miles long, was known popularly among African scholars as the Walls of Benin. However, as I shall show, like the Great Wall of China, they were created by a single civilization, and therefore, constitute one major wall system. Surprisingly, Benin is an area that cultural anthropologists, known as ethnographers have taken time to study and have written about extensively. However, as Dr. Ivan Van Sertima pointed out in one of his lectures, one of the great flaws of scholarship on Africa is that: "Anthropology has for a long time had a love affair with the primitive... man living on the edge of the world... The Great Wall of Africa consists of the Great Walls of Benin which are called Iya by the Beni people. To understand the enormity of The Great Wall of Africa, one must consider the magnitude of earth displaced to construct it. The Great Wall of Benin contains more than 100 times the material of the Great Pyramid of Egypt (Pharaoh Khufu's Pyramid). This is no minor feat because the Great Pyramid is a massive structure, containing more stone than 30 Empire State buildings. In all, more than 9.1 billion cubic feet of earth was used to build the Great Wall of Benin over an 800-year time period. The average height of each wall is 3 meters or just under 10 feet high, however, some of the Iya tower almost 60 feet in height (18 meters). The Iya cover more than 2,500 square miles of land area. This massive effort took more than 150 million man-hours to construct. Simply put, if all of the material was taken from all of the buildings on New York City's borough of Manhattan, there would not be enough substance to build the Great Wall of Africa. The Great Wall of Africa contains more material than all of the financial district's buildings, all of midtown Manhattan's buildings and all of uptown Manhattan's buildings (Harlem) combined.The ancient Bini and Ishan people, the people of the Benin Empire, who built their wall, had no bulldozers, cranes or other equipment from the Caterpillar Corporation. They had no backhoe loaders, articulated trucks, or asphalt pavers... What they had was in many ways more impressive than all of these things. They were standing on the history of a continent that built 4,500 year-old pyramids that were 48 stories high, smelted carbon steel 2,000 years before the present, sent 2,400 ships to America 181 years before Christopher Columbus, produced the first universities in the world, understood how to perform surgery on the eye to remove cataracts 700 years ago, and that had charted star systems that were not discovered by Europeans and Americans until the Einstein Orbiting Satellite observed them in 1996.

The Great Wall of Africa: the Empire of Benin's 10,000 Mile Long Wall

The Great Wall of Africa: the Empire of Benin's 10,000 Mile Long Wall PDF Author: Maurice Martinez
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 135

Get Book Here

Book Description
Nestled in the southern section of modern-day Nigeria are the remnants of a civilization so vast that one of its crowning achievements has never been matched by any civilization that has ever existed on the planet--including all modern societies. Archeologically known as the Ancient Linear Earthworks of Benin and Ishan, the Great Wall of Africa, also known as the Great Wall of Benin is almost 10,000 miles long and at some points reaches more than 60 feet in height. Even though it holds a place in the 1982 Guinness Book of World Records as the most massive structure that has ever been constructed, almost no one outside of a select few archeologists and specialists has heard of its enormous breadth. This book attempts to change that forever.The Great Wall of Africa or Great Wall of Benin actually consists of a series of linear earthworks, many of them circular, some straight, some which stand on their own, and others that interconnect across a large area of Southern Nigeria. The Great Wall of Africa, like the Great Wall of China, is not a single wall, but a series of separate walls. Until the writing of this book, and another that I authored called: From Man To Superman: Dr. John Henrik Clarke vs. Herman Cain, the Great Wall of Africa, which stretches 9,941 miles long, was known popularly among African scholars as the Walls of Benin. However, as I shall show, like the Great Wall of China, they were created by a single civilization, and therefore, constitute one major wall system. Surprisingly, Benin is an area that cultural anthropologists, known as ethnographers have taken time to study and have written about extensively. However, as Dr. Ivan Van Sertima pointed out in one of his lectures, one of the great flaws of scholarship on Africa is that: "Anthropology has for a long time had a love affair with the primitive... man living on the edge of the world... The Great Wall of Africa consists of the Great Walls of Benin which are called Iya by the Beni people. To understand the enormity of The Great Wall of Africa, one must consider the magnitude of earth displaced to construct it. The Great Wall of Benin contains more than 100 times the material of the Great Pyramid of Egypt (Pharaoh Khufu's Pyramid). This is no minor feat because the Great Pyramid is a massive structure, containing more stone than 30 Empire State buildings. In all, more than 9.1 billion cubic feet of earth was used to build the Great Wall of Benin over an 800-year time period. The average height of each wall is 3 meters or just under 10 feet high, however, some of the Iya tower almost 60 feet in height (18 meters). The Iya cover more than 2,500 square miles of land area. This massive effort took more than 150 million man-hours to construct. Simply put, if all of the material was taken from all of the buildings on New York City's borough of Manhattan, there would not be enough substance to build the Great Wall of Africa. The Great Wall of Africa contains more material than all of the financial district's buildings, all of midtown Manhattan's buildings and all of uptown Manhattan's buildings (Harlem) combined.The ancient Bini and Ishan people, the people of the Benin Empire, who built their wall, had no bulldozers, cranes or other equipment from the Caterpillar Corporation. They had no backhoe loaders, articulated trucks, or asphalt pavers... What they had was in many ways more impressive than all of these things. They were standing on the history of a continent that built 4,500 year-old pyramids that were 48 stories high, smelted carbon steel 2,000 years before the present, sent 2,400 ships to America 181 years before Christopher Columbus, produced the first universities in the world, understood how to perform surgery on the eye to remove cataracts 700 years ago, and that had charted star systems that were not discovered by Europeans and Americans until the Einstein Orbiting Satellite observed them in 1996.

The Benin Plaques

The Benin Plaques PDF Author: Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351254596
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The 16th century bronze plaques from the kingdom of Benin are among the most recognized masterpieces of African art, and yet many details of their commission and installation in the palace in Benin City, Nigeria, are little understood. The Benin Plaques, A 16th Century Imperial Monument is a detailed analysis of a corpus of nearly 850 bronze plaques that were installed in the court of the Benin kingdom at the moment of its greatest political power and geographic reach. By examining European accounts, Benin oral histories, and the physical evidence of the extant plaques, Gunsch is the first to propose an installation pattern for the series.

Empires of Medieval West Africa

Empires of Medieval West Africa PDF Author: David C. Conrad
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 1604131640
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 153

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Book Description
Explores empires of medieval west Africa.

Capitalism and Slavery

Capitalism and Slavery PDF Author: Eric Williams
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469619490
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide. Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. Years ahead of its time, his profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development. Binding an economic view of history with strong moral argument, Williams's study of the role of slavery in financing the Industrial Revolution refuted traditional ideas of economic and moral progress and firmly established the centrality of the African slave trade in European economic development. He also showed that mature industrial capitalism in turn helped destroy the slave system. Establishing the exploitation of commercial capitalism and its link to racial attitudes, Williams employed a historicist vision that set the tone for future studies. In a new introduction, Colin Palmer assesses the lasting impact of Williams's groundbreaking work and analyzes the heated scholarly debates it generated when it first appeared.

What Britain Did to Nigeria

What Britain Did to Nigeria PDF Author: Max Siollun
Publisher: Hurst & Company
ISBN: 9781911723264
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
A revelatory account of British imperialism's shameful impact on Africa's most populous state.

Travels in West Africa

Travels in West Africa PDF Author: Mary Henrietta Kingsley
Publisher: London : Macmillan
ISBN:
Category : Africa
Languages : en
Pages : 814

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Book Description


Historical Archaeology in Nigeria

Historical Archaeology in Nigeria PDF Author: Kit W. Wesler
Publisher: Africa World Press
ISBN: 9780865436107
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 380

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Book Description
The case studies included in this collection range from the coast of Lagos State, through the Yoruba inland, once dominated by Oyo and Ibadan, to Benin City, seat of the great pre-colonial empire, north to Zungeru, seat of colonial administration under Lord Lugard, and the Jos Plateau, homeland of the Ron; and south again to the Niger Delta, where the Nigerian people first began their historic interaction with Portuguese explorers.

The Story of the Moors in Spain

The Story of the Moors in Spain PDF Author: Stanley Lane-Poole
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Arabs
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description


I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings PDF Author: Maya Angelou
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 030747772X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.

Tourism in Africa

Tourism in Africa PDF Author: Iain Christie
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464801975
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
This book presents how tourism initiates economic development and how constraints to the growth of tourism in Sub-Saharan Africa can be addressed. With 24 case studies that illustrate tourism development, it reveals that despite destination challenges, the basic elements needed to initialize or intensify success are applicable across the region.