Igbo Ukwu

Igbo-Ukwu, which means Great Igbo in English, is a town in Anambra State, Nigeria. It is made up of three quarters, Obiuno, Ngo and Ihite, with several villages in each quarter and thirty-six administrative wards, and it borders Ora-eri, Ichida, Azigbo, Ezinifite, Amichi, Isuofia and Ikenga. Originally known simply as Igbo, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Nri beginning in the 8th or 9th century CE and the centre of an extensive trade system linking the town with Gao on the Niger bend and, through Gao, with Egypt and North Africa. The town is best known for archaeological sites, including Igbo Isaiah, a shrine, and Igbo Richard, a burial chamber, where excavations found bronze artifacts dated by radiocarbon to about 850 AD, the earliest known bronze casting in the region.