The town that lived on the hills and then came down

Six hundred and sixty-seven steps up to a settlement that was occupied for centuries and left largely as it stood.

Words Halima Sadiq

16 April 20266 min read

A range of high granite domes rising above wooded country. — The Idanre hills. The old town sat up there for centuries, reached by six hundred and sixty-seven steps. Photograph: Sasu photography / Wikimedia Commons (CC0)

About Idanre

The old town of Idanre sits high in a range of granite domes, reached by six hundred and sixty-seven steps. The community lived up there until the 1920s, when they came down to the plain — leaving the palace, the shrines and the burial grounds in place. The hills are one of the more extraordinary landscapes in West Africa and one of the least visited.

Everything from Idanre →

The old town of Idanre sits on top of a range of granite domes, and the way up is a staircase of six hundred and sixty-seven steps. The community lived up there for centuries, for the same reason the Egba settled under Olumo: it could be held.

The ancient hill settlement at Idanre seen across the rock. — Photograph: Agbebiyi Adekunle (Tadek Photography) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

In the 1920s they came down to the plain. What they did not do was dismantle what they were leaving, so the palace, the shrines, the court and the burial grounds are still up there.

A view down onto the old town of Idanre from the hilltop. — Looking down on old Idanre. The community came off the hills in the 1920s and left the palace, the shrines and the burial grounds where they were. Photograph: Jombo12 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

It is one of the more extraordinary landscapes in West Africa and among the least visited, and those two facts are related in the usual way: there is no road, the steps are the road, and that filters the traffic to people who genuinely want to go.