Zuma Rock

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Zuma Rock is a huge natural monolith, a single giant rock, standing near Madalla in Niger State, Nigeria. It lies just west of the capital, Abuja, beside the main road to Kaduna, and is sometimes called the "Gateway to Abuja from Suleja". It is also pictured on Nigeria's 100-naira banknote.

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At a glance

Country: Nigeria
Location: Near Abuja, Nigeria
Height: 300 m

Quick answers

Where is Zuma Rock?

Zuma Rock is in Near Abuja, Nigeria.

How tall is Zuma Rock?

Zuma Rock is about 300 m tall.

A huge monolith rising above the plains near Abuja, pictured on Nigeria's 100-naira note.

Geologists call it an inselberg, an "island mountain" rising from a flat plain. It is an igneous intrusion made of gabbro and granodiorite, Precambrian in age, which means it formed from hardened underground magma more than 540 million years ago. The rock sits about 725 metres above sea level and rises roughly 300 metres above the land around it.

People and the rock

The Zuba people say they found the rock in the 15th century and named it "zumwa", which may mean a place of guinea fowls. They settled in a ring of villages around it. The Gbagyi people also used the rock as a defensive hideout during wars against neighbouring groups. The ground around the rock was once a thick forest. Its name is still used by the local settlements.

Legends

Local stories say that a village of the Koro people once lay in the forest around the rock, and that its chief was the priest of the rock's spirit, to whom sacrifices were made at a small stone in the village. These are traditions told by local people, not scientific facts. Legends like this show how special the rock has long been to the people who live around it, and why it stays a landmark of the region even today.