Begho

Begho (also Bighu or bitumen ) was an ancient trading town in present-day Ghana, the ( south of the Black Volta ) (7 ° 50 ' 60N / 2 ° 28' 60 W ) is located near the modern village of Hani on the river Nimpeni.

The city had from the eleventh to the 18th century some importance as a caravan base. In the 18th century the city was abandoned.

In 1471 the city was first visited by the Portuguese. In the 17th and 18th century it is described by Heerman Abramsz and the Arab writer Khitab Chunja as a major trading center, the Djenne supplied with products of the rain forest of Akan, such as gold and ivory. In the 17th century, the city designated by the Dutch cartographer Hans propheet as a center of the textile industry.

Excavations have been able to expose a large urban settlements, which numbered about 10 000 inhabitants, the largest in West Africa. The urban area comprised an oval with a diameter of four to five kilometers. The city was divided into four city districts, in which different ethnic groups lived, among which probably were also Muslims. The housing units, of which about 1500 were observed, were built of mud brick, were rectangular and had flat roofs. In the findings, the districts, however, hardly be distinguished. In the center of town there was a large market place.

The excavations occupy a lively craft. There were traces of copper, ivory, ceramics and textile processing. Food base was agriculture, which were also found remains of domestic animals (cattle, sheep, goat and pig), next were wild animals like antelope hunted.

There were plenty of evidence for a substantial trade, including German earthenware, delft ware, Chinese porcelain, as well as Dutch and Venetian glass beads.

The discovery of ivory trumpets, which are used to today's chief of Hani as a symbol of power, suggest that locally ruled a king and Begho was a city-state.