Despite its earlier listing ahead of the Sacred Grove at Osun-Osogbo, the Sukur Cultural Landscape is less known to most Nigerians.
Hidden high up the Mandara Mountains bordering Nigeria and Cameroon, in Adamawa State, is one of Nigeria’s two designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Sukur Cultural Landscape is a settlement whose existence dates back to Neolithic times and which has, for centuries, remained an independent kingdom and centre of iron production and distribution. This community of independent people lived and continued to depend on a terraced pattern of agricultural practice and extensive trading in iron ore. The people of Sukur came to monopolize iron production in the region owing to the availability of magnetite, an iron ore, and local wood for making charcoal. These resources gave the people a place of pride and dominance among other nearby kingdoms.
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