Lagos — Foreign archeologists work on a kingdom the remains of which are touted as the biggest archaeological site on the planet. Bamidele Johnson who visited the site reports

The desolate road leading to Eredo, a sleepy settlement in Ijebuland in the western part of Nigeria, does not hint at the presence of a site of any global archaeological significance in the town. Cheops, site of the world famous Egyptian pyramids, the great Ruins of Zimbabwe and the great Wall of China are the names that readily come to mind as some of the world's grandest archaeological sites.

Yet, Eredo, for all its obscurity is the site of the world's largest remains of a civilization gone by. Archaeologists across the world have confirmed this claim. The site, a few hours drive from Lagos, is called the Sungbo's Eredo.

Sungbo Eredo, according to reports by a team of British archeologists led by Dr. Patrick Darling of Bournemouth University and made available to TEMPOLife by one of the site's local guides, is the biggest archaeological monument on the planet. It consists of ramparts of a thousand-year-old kingdom. The ramparts are long mooted sections which archaeological reports said must have been constructed for defence purposes. The ramparts are made up of earth walls and ditch that have been measured to be 160 kilometres long and seven storeys high. Local legend claim that they stretch from Eredo to Benin, Edo State. Archaeological reports depicted the Sungbo Eredo as forming a giant mosaic of 500 interconnected settlement boundaries. A local guide, Mr. Jada, said that the moats were dug by the slaves of the Queen of Sheba with ordinary hands. Jada explained that the slaves who lived at the time grew as tall as eight feet and had huge hands which enabled them to move out earth in such monstrous quantities.

Inside the Sungbo Eredo, TEMPOLife discovered very high walls covered in green moss, engulfed by trees, undergrowth and a fetid swamp. Those who dug Sungbo Eredo, archeologists claim, must have shifted more earth than the builders of the ancient Egyptian pyramids. They also estimate that the construction could have taken about 150 million hours to construct. Archaeologists point out that despite the non-availability of either a compass or aerial photos, the builders were still able to keep the Sungbo Eredo mega-structure on course.

Some archeologists have also claimed that the Sungbo Eredo is the earliest proof of kingdom formation in Western Nigeria. Preliminary carbon dating put the age of the site at 1,200 years.

Eredo, which means ditch, local lore claim, was built by Bilikisu, a fabulously rich childless widow who wanted a monument to her rule of the area. Local legend says Bilikisu is the Bilgis, the queen of Sheba, an enduring figure in Biblical and Q'uranic history. Sungbo is said to mean Sheba in local dialect.

According to Biblical account, Bilgis, the queen, ruler of Sheba, sent a camel train of gold and ivory to king Solomon. Enchanted by the splendour of Solomon's palace, Bilgis married Solomon, and their son established a dynasty in Ethiopia. The Bible puts the date of the Queen of Sheba's reign around 10 Century BC. However, the report of British archeologists and local legend have caused a schism among Biblical and classical scholars as regards where the Queen of Sheba ruled over. Another account closely linked to the Biblical one and that of the Koran, describes the queen as a worshipper of the Sun god based in the Arabian Pennisula, who converted to Islam. It was through her conversion to Islam that she acquired the name Bilgis.

Arabian legend describes her as a trader of incense which was then a source of great regional influence. But a 1505 document written by Pacheco Fereire, a Portuguese explorer, recorded a kingdom called Geebu, surrounded by a great moat. Geebu is believed to be the Portuguese corruption of Ijebu. Thus, Patrick Darling and his team of archeologists from Britain's Bournemouth University are of the opinion that the Queen of Sheba actually reigned over somewhere in Africa and not in the far East as it has been peddled.

This has also stretched the film world's, particularly America's portrayal of the Queen of Sheba as a white skinned royal.

Earlier dating of the Queen's rule had claimed that she ruled Sheba about 3,000 years ago. But soil samples from Eredo put the date at 1,200 years. The differential in the dating is also the subject of another controversy. Eredo locals believe that the Queen of Sheba had her kingdom where their town is now situated. Hundreds of pilgrims are said to come to Sungbo Eredo's shrine every year. There are streams and brooks said to be imbued with curative and child-giving attributes. TEMPOLife was, however, told that sacrifices were recently offered at the shrines so visitors could not get there.

Today, there is a place at Oke-Eri, also in Ijebu kingdom where Bilgis or the Queen of Sheba is believed to have been buried. A path through which she was believed to have left the town to Oke-Eri was shown to TEMPOLife.

For all of Bilgis enduring qualities in classical history, there is no hard proof about her life. She was said to be stupendously wealthy and powerful. Locals said she was wicked and out to get any impure person who ventures into the grove. Women are disallowed from entering some places in the Sungbo's Eredo.

Whatever Bilgis represented in her life, the moats reputedly constructed by the monstrously huge hands of her eight-footer slaves, are believed by archeologists, to dwarf every other globally renowned mega-structures.

Writing in his reports, Darling noted that Eredo has remained hidden and forgotten by the outside world because of the lack of scientific and archaeological research in West Africa.

Publication Date: March 30, 2000