These pictures show the ancient and mysterious ruins of Djado an abandoned African Kanem- Bornu city which exists in current day Niger republic.
The ruined city is located on the Djado Plateau in the Sahara Desert, a portion of the world’s greatest desert in Northeastern Niger, which is famous for truly ancient cave art of massive animals long gone from the region (and often from Earth).
The abandon forts of this uninhabited city is still standing and visible till today.
It seems the town was once a forested, and then a lush grassland, but now it is a desert (which is worth thinking about).
Though as an empty town for hundreds of years ,Djado might have been also known with some other names , but our research found out that it is the city of Zara- Aura also known as Djado as mentioned above.
This ruined city dates back to between 800 to 1000 years , when the community was an important trading center for salt and slaves between the ancient kingdoms of KANEM-BORNU and North Africa (Tunisia,Algeria and Libyas region of Tripolitania).
Zara-Aura lies on the southern end of the Djado plateau in Niger republic at 450 meters of elevation within a small oasis of brackish water.
The KANEM-BORNU Empire and the Egyptians have one thing in common. ‘That is abonding of towns,cities and even their capitals ‘ for no reason apart from building another new entire city from the scratch. This is a show of might,wealth and resources. This explains the reason why the Kanem-Bornu empire keeps rotating its capitals overtime in history, as a result places like Njimi,Ngazargamu,Kukawa,Monguno, Dikwa and others were all capitals of the Empire at one time or the other.
Though apart from might and power some other reasons like economic interests, droughts,closeness to the central Authorities, water availability and supply as well as expansion and contraction of territories sometimes plays vital roles in this regard.
In respect of Zara-Aura may be the kanem-Bornu empire bandoned it because of the water supply that grew brackish, the desert grew too fierce, or the original economic reason which lead the city to flourish had long since vanished. The Djado plateau seems to have been a disputed region between greater kingdoms and empires in history.
The photos are certainly evocative however, and they provide troubling food for thought as Ferrebeekeeper begins to delve more deeply into the history and meaning of cities.
This site was added to the UNESCO World HeritageTentative List on May 26, 2006 in the Cultural category due to its universal cultural significance.
“””We at Honours from the KANEM-BORNU Empir wish to thank Mallam Babagana Abubakar and his team of Archeologists for this research and for allowing us to share part of their works on this platform””””.
This piece was put together by Honours from the Kanem-Bornu Empire ©
For those that don’t know much about Mr. Babagana Abubakar. He is an award winning and internationally highly respected African Author , that has record breaking and much more publications than any other author on the present and ancient Kanem-Bornu history. And he was the first and only researcher that discovered and connected us to our Gabonese Kanuri brothers that are citizens of Gabon republic in his publication the ‘Kanuri Complete ‘.
please we refer you to some of his related publications relevant to the KANEM-BORNU as listed below :
1.Kanuri Complete https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320004428_KANURI_COMPLETE
2.Origing and Meaning of Borno https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320808718_ORIGIN_AND_MEANING_OF_BORNO
3.Origin and Meaning of Maiduguri https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318215637_Origin_and_Meaning_of_Maiduguri
4.Magical Dust from the Kanuri’s Ancient Kanem-Bornu Empire Territory Sustaining the Great Amazon Rainforest of South America
5.Calabash Complete https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325989535_CALABASH_COMPLETE
6.HARNESSING LAKE CHAD’S GROUND WATER FOR IMPROVING LIVELIHOODS OF LAKE CHADS INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES THREATENED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
7.Origin and Meaning of Fezzan
- Climate Change in Africa: Impacts and Effects on the Inhabitants of the Lake Chad Region:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234209179_Climate_Change_in_Africa_Impacts_and_Effects_on_the_Inhabitants_of_the_Lake_Chad_Region
9.Sahara Desert Treasures, Geography and Associated Wonders: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309648345_Sahara_Desert_Treasures_Geography_and_Associated_Wonders_Yesterday_Today_and_Tomorrow
10.Lake Chad and Climate Change
He has tenths of other articles /research/ publications but we are not mentioning it here , because they are not related to Kanem-Bornu .
Even us at HONOURS from the KANEM-BORNU EMPIR team derive most of our ideas and inspirations from the works and publications of Babagana Abubakar. So we advised those interested in further research on related issues to his articles.
