"Visiting Old Zaria" a Zaria Travel Page by MikeBird

Before starting our work in Kaduna we were invited by our hosts to visit Zaria - the old city about an hours drive north of Kaduna.

We were taken around the backstreets and roads of the old town - saw the old gates of the town- probably not much more than the height of a truck. Centrally placed inside the town walls was the Emir's Palace - a brightly coloured building that was otherwise unspectacular.
The houses in the old town were made largely of mud and had few windows and little else to distinguish them. Here and there the walls had been decorated with patterns but these were not greatly in evidence. Houses were constructed along the streets or perhaps the roads developed between the houses; it wasn't clear to me. The houses had few services though power cables were lining the streets in places so some of the residences must have been connected to mains electricity.

Our trip around old Zaria was a fascinating insight into a traditional Nigerian seat of influence.

Other parts of the old town were more developed as seen from this photo.