Bouar Megaliths
- Bouar is a market town in the western Central African Republic, lying on the main road from Bangui (437 km) to the frontier with Cameroon (210 km).
- About seventy groups of megaliths lie in the town and to its north and east.
- The Bouar Megaliths indicate an advanced level of habitation dating back to the very late Neolithic Era (c. 3500-2700 BC).
- Ironworking arrived in the region around 1000 BC from both Bantu cultures in what is today Nigeria and from the Nile city of Meroë, the capital of the Kingdom of Kush.
- The Bouar Megaliths were added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on April 11, 2006 in the Cultural category.
Megalithic Stones in Bouar, Central African Republic
“In some parts of Africa megaliths survive which are somewhat reminiscent of Stonehenge. Hundreds of them are to be found in the borderland between Cameroon and Central African Republic. They are thought to be memorials, but contain no human remains, and were made by cultivators during the first millennium BCE. That they had the energy and resources to cut, transport and erect stones so large that they posed a danger to modern excavators shows the strength the religious or other beliefs which inspired them. It also reflects a culture which could afford this type of extravagance” - Elizabeth Allo Isichei – 1997. A History of African Societies to 1870.
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