By Don Valentine
We were taught the Greeks led our globe in mathematical tasks. The accurate history is that all of the equations and algorithms for basic math operations were invented in Ishango, Africa. Another myth is that the Great Wall of China was the largest earthworks ever built by man. Guinness Book of World Records annotated, “the Walls of Benin were the world’s largest earthworks carried out prior to the mechanical era.”
The African country of Benin was an important kingdom that thrived from the 1200s through the 1800s. Benin was located in the southwestern part of modern-day Nigeria, with Benin City as its capital. This mosaic covered an area of 2,510 square miles. The Benin walls integrated a combination of ramparts and moats for added security to the capital. During the centuries the walls were in existence Benin was repeatedly challenged for its fortune. National Geographic wrote, “Benin City was one of the great pre-colonial urban centres of sub-Saharan Africa. The focus of the Benin Empire held sway across a large portion of West Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.”
The European marauders were astonished by the precision of Benin’s architectural prowess. Security was assured for Benin people during the trans-Atlantic slave trade era. Portuguese ship captain Lorenzo Pinto, in his ship’s log wrote, “Great Benin, where the King resides, is larger than Lisbon; all the streets run straight as far as the eye can see. The houses are large, especially that of the King, which is richly decorated and has fine columns. The city is wealthy and industrious. It is so well organized that theft is unknown and people live in such security that they have no doors to their houses.”
Architecturally the walls proved to be an intricate, complex feat of security. Ancient Origins.net cited Ron Eglash, an ethno-mathematician, “…Benin City was planned according to fractal design. This means that the planning of the city involved “careful rules of symmetry, proportionality and repetition.” Eglash pointed out that “the city and its surrounding villages were purposely laid out to form perfect fractals, with similar shapes repeated in the rooms of each house, and the house itself, and the clusters of houses in the village in mathematically predictable patterns.”
At the very center of Benin City was the court of the oba king, from which the city’s main streets radiated. There were 30 of these streets, each being about 37 meters (120 feet) wide. The streets ran at right angles to each other and were equipped with an underground drainage system that served to channel storm water away from the city.”
The design of the Great Walls are impressive for a people that were adjudicated to be only 3/5th’s of a man! To learn more read, Dr. Dominique Malaquai The Kingdom of Benin.
