THE GREAT WALL OF BENIN

The walls of Benin in Edo State, Nigeria are the largest man-made structures and the largest Archaeological Earthworks in the World.In Benin, capital city of present day Edo State stood the walls of Benin (800 – 1400AD) which are the longest ancient earthworks in the world and apparently the largest man-made structure on earth. The walls are a set of earthworks comprising of banks and ditches called Iya in the native tongue. It comprises 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) of “Iya” (banks and ditches) city and an estimated 16,000 kilometres (9,900 miles) in the rural areas surrounding Benin. As at that time, with its enormous length, it was speculated to be double the length of the Great Wall of China, until it was declared in the year 2012 (after five years of thorough measurement by Chinese surveyors) that the Great wall has a length of around 21, 0000 km.