Nigeria
c.1200 - 1897
The great walls and moats surrounding the Kingdom of Benin were once a marvel that rivalled the Great Wall of China. These impressive interconnected structures had some 500 parts and are said to have measured over 16,000km in length and enclosed around 6,500km of land. Indeed, the 1974 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records listed the walls as the world's largest earthworks prior to the invention of heavy machinery.
The walls and moats
