Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division

Olfert Dapper, Description de l'Afrique, contenant les noms, la situation & les confins de toutes ses parties (Amsterdam: Wolfgang, Waesberge, Boom & van Someren, 1686)

The seventeenth-century image of Benin City depicts the capital of a vast empire. By the mid-sixteenth century, it stretched from the region of northern Lagos to the Niger River delta. Presided over by the oba, or king, the city was both a major trading center and the religious and political capital of the Edo people.