🇳🇬 Nigeria
Nigeria holds two of the great metalworking traditions in world art and a city whose earthworks were among the largest structures ever built by hand. Most of it is invisible in a landscape photograph — you have to read the objects, the cloth and the architecture.
Nigeria's collection needs 3 more rounds before it opens. These are live today.
Nigeria runs from mangrove and rainforest in the south to Sahel in the north, and the built environment changes with it: mud-brick and flat roofs in the north, timber and corrugated iron in the south, colonial and oil-boom concrete in the port cities.
Architecture
Mud-brick mosques with projecting palm-wood beams and buttressed walls are Hausa-Fulani, northern cities, 1400 onwards. Two-storey wooden-balconied houses with iron roofs are Brazilian-style, built by returnees in Lagos, 1880–1930. Impluvium courtyards with steep pitched roofs are Yoruba.
Landscape
Mangrove creeks and oil-palm forest is the Niger Delta. Granite inselbergs rising from farmland are the south-west near Abeokuta and the Jos plateau. Flat sandy scrub with baobabs and dust haze is the Sahel in the far north during harmattan.
Period tells
Brass and bronze court art means Benin or Ife rather than anywhere else in the region. Railway architecture appears from 1898. Purpose-built modernist university campuses and stadiums are 1960–1975, the independence and oil years; Abuja as a capital only exists after 1991.
A starting shortlist, oldest first. Every one of these makes a round that Nigerians can nail and everyone else has to work out.
Jos plateau, central NigeriaAncient world
Life-size heads with pierced pupils and elaborate hair, from a culture smelting iron a thousand years before its neighbours.
Igbo-Ukwu, AnambraMedieval
Lost-wax castings of astonishing delicacy — insects, rope, shells — from a burial that predates Benin by five centuries.
Benin City, EdoEarly modern
Wide lit streets inside earthworks that ran for thousands of kilometres, with brass plaques recording the court on the palace pillars.
Benin CityThe long 19th century
A British punitive expedition burned the city and removed thousands of bronzes now scattered across the world's museums.
Race Course, LagosModern era
The Union Jack came down at midnight on 1 October before the largest population in Africa.
Nigerian history touches ancient & classical, medieval & renaissance, 19th century and the 20th century. Each of those eras has a timed round of its own — the same centuries, but questions drawn from every country in the library, so you find out whether you can date the rest of the period as confidently as you can date Nigeria.
Ancient & classical
Nigerian moment here: The Nok terracottas made (500 BC).
Medieval & Renaissance
Nigerian moments here: The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes cast (900), Benin City at its height (1500).
19th century
Nigerian moment here: The sack of Benin (1897).
20th century
Nigerian moment here: Independence (1960).
Dates, order and places from the moments above. Answers are printed underneath — cover them with a hand if you want to test yourself, or read them out for a quiz round.
1.The Nok terracottas made — what year?
Answer500 BC
Life-size heads with pierced pupils and elaborate hair, from a culture smelting iron a thousand years before its neighbours.
2.The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes cast — what year?
Answer900
Lost-wax castings of astonishing delicacy — insects, rope, shells — from a burial that predates Benin by five centuries.
3.Benin City at its height — what year?
Answer1500
Wide lit streets inside earthworks that ran for thousands of kilometres, with brass plaques recording the court on the palace pillars.
4.The sack of Benin — what year?
Answer1897
A British punitive expedition burned the city and removed thousands of bronzes now scattered across the world's museums.
5.Independence — what year?
Answer1960
The Union Jack came down at midnight on 1 October before the largest population in Africa.
6.Which came first in Nigeria — the Nok terracottas made or the Igbo-Ukwu bronzes cast?
AnswerThe Nok terracottas made, in 500 BC.
The Igbo-Ukwu bronzes cast follows in 900, 1400 years later.
7.Which came first in Nigeria — Benin City at its height or the sack of Benin?
AnswerBenin City at its height, in 1500.
The sack of Benin follows in 1897, 397 years later.
8.Where in Nigeria would you drop the pin for the Nok terracottas made?
AnswerJos plateau, central Nigeria
Life-size heads with pierced pupils and elaborate hair, from a culture smelting iron a thousand years before its neighbours.
9.Where in Nigeria would you drop the pin for the Igbo-Ukwu bronzes cast?
AnswerIgbo-Ukwu, Anambra
Lost-wax castings of astonishing delicacy — insects, rope, shells — from a burial that predates Benin by five centuries.
10.How far apart are the oldest and newest Nigerian moments in this collection?
Answer2,460 years
From the Nok terracottas made in 500 BC to Independence in 1960.
You don't need a photograph or a map reference. Name a moment — "The Nok terracottas made, Jos plateau, central Nigeria" — and the builder fills in the year, drops the pin, writes the factoid and paints a 360° scene you can stand inside. Publish it and it joins this collection for everyone.
Step 1
One line is enough — an event, a place, a year you half-remember. Or let the AI draft five moments around a theme.
Step 2
The year, the exact coordinates and a one-sentence factoid come back filled in. Everything stays editable.
Step 3
A 4K 360° panorama of that place in that year, ready to spin around inside the game.
🇳🇬 Put your own scene on /play/nigeria
Credits cover the AI: 1 to auto-fill a moment, 3 to draft five at once, 25 for each 4K panorama. Your map stays yours — you choose whether it's public, unlisted or private.
Moments Nigerians want to see in the game. Vote them up — the top of this list gets built next.
Each round drops you into a 360° scene from Nigeria's past. Look around for clues — architecture, clothing, technology, landscape — then place the scene on the world map and pick the year. You score up to 5,000 points a round: closer in distance and closer in time both pay. Five rounds make a game.
No. You can play Nigerian rounds straight away with no sign-up. Signing in saves your XP, keeps your character progressing through history, and puts you on the leaderboards.
The collection spans 500 BC to 1960 — from the nok terracottas made through to independence. New moments are added as the community suggests them.
Yes, completely free. There is no paywall on rounds, the daily challenge, or the leaderboards.
Yes — that's how the collection grows. Suggest any moment Nigerians would recognise instantly, like the nok terracottas made. Approved suggestions get built into playable 360° rounds and credited on the page.
Daily Challenge
Five fresh rounds every day, same for everyone.
History quizzes
Short quizzes across eras, empires and events.
Community maps
Panorama collections built by other players.
All game modes
Every free history game on the site, in one list.