Nigeria

Sukur

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The Sukur Cultural Landscape comprises a hilltop settlement that has survived unchanged for centuries.

The landscape includes the dry stone palace of the Hidi, the head of the community. On the lower ground lie villages with mud-walled houses, wells and terraced agricultural fields that also have ritual use. Remains of iron smelting furnaces have been preserved too.

Community Perspective: The site lies in the far northeast of Nigeria, in an area coloured red in most travel advisories due to Boko Haram terrorist activity, and is rarely visited by non-locals.

Site Info

Official Information
Full Name
Sukur Cultural Landscape (ID: 938)
Country
Nigeria
Status
Inscribed 1999 Site history
History of Sukur
1999: Inscribed
Inscribed
WHS Type
Cultural
Criteria
  • iii
  • v
  • vi
Links
UNESCO
whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
Related Resources
News Article
  • March 17, 2011 cochraneeagle.com — Screening of The 13 Months of Sukur: Africa's First World Heritage Cultural Landscape
  • Dec. 13, 2009 sunnewsonline.com — World treasure Sukur groans under neglect
  • Oct. 22, 2007 alertnet.org — Visitors to Sukur are warned not to approach a certain ancient baobab tree because, villagers say, it turns people into hermaphrodites.

Community Information

  • Community Category
  • Cultural Landscape: Associative
Travel Information
Red Zone Travel Advisory
Red Zone Travel Advisory
Northern Nigeria
One thousand visitors or fewer
One thousand visitors or fewer
DD: the mgt plan suggests it is visitable, even has a souvenir shop and …
Most Remote Cultural WHS
Most Remote Cultural WHS
Abuja airport is 14 hours away
Recent Connections
View all (17) .
Connections of Sukur
History
  • Places of Execution
    "The traditional prison and the former execution site, neither of which is still in use, are partly ruined and in need of conservation and possible reconstruction." (Nomination file and AB)
Architecture
  • Dry Stone Construction
    The villages in the Sukur cultural landscape ...have their own characteristic domestic architecture. Among its features are drystone walls, used as social markers and defensive enclosures, sunken animal (principally bull) pens, granaries, and threshing floors (AB ev)
Damaged
  • Terrorist Attacks
    December 2014 by Boko Haram: "They killed men, kidnapped women and children, burnt houses and stole all the goods and livestock they could carry."

    See www.shoutoutuk.org

World Heritage Process
Human Activity
Constructions
  • Prison
    "The traditional prison and the former execution site, neither of which is still in use, are partly ruined and in need of conservation and possible reconstruction." (Nomination file and AB)
  • Stepwells
    "unique stone-built conical walk-in wells"
WHS on Other Lists
Timeline
  • Built in the 17th century
    "A later Iron age phase going back at least to the 17th Century is represented by the establishment of the current Dur Chiefly Dynasty and the development of Sukur as a major iron producing centre" (Nom file)
Visiting conditions
  • Red Zone Travel Advisory
    Northern Nigeria
  • One thousand visitors or fewer
    DD: the mgt plan suggests it is visitable, even has a souvenir shop and trained volunteer guides. Although “Most of the directional signs leading visitors to the site have been tampered with overtime.” Boko Haram Insurgency 2014-2016. https://whc.unesco.org/document/167904
  • Most Remote Cultural WHS
    Abuja airport is 14 hours away
News
cochraneeagle.com 03/17/2011
Screening of The 13 Months of Suku…
sunnewsonline.com 12/13/2009
World treasure Sukur groans under …
alertnet.org 10/22/2007
Visitors to Sukur are warned not t…
Recent Visitors
Visitors of Sukur
Reserved for members.

Community Reviews

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First published: 01/05/05.

Anonymous

Sukur

Sukur (Inscribed)

I visited this site during the 2004 world cultural day.It was so an interesting trip expecially when i was opportuned to see the palace which is not imaginable to the modern world.In view of my trip to sukur,my prayer is that UNESCO should intervain with great dextirity to see that cultural heritage at that site is maintained.

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