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Ile Ife
EntityQ180084· pop 44· linked from 797 articles

Also known as Ife

Ifẹ̀ ( , also called Ilé-Ifẹ̀) is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria founded sometime between the years 1000 BC and 500 BC. By 900 AD, the city had become an important West African emporium producing sophisticated art forms. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ifẹ̀ is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of over 500,000 people, which is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006.

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7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Region
Osun
Country
Nigeria
Population
560,000
Timezone
Africa/Lagos

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

63US AQIModerate
PM2.5
16.9 µg/m³
PM10
18.6 µg/m³
As of 2026-08-10 04:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

Settlement.name
Ilé-Ifẹ̀
Settlement.other_name
Ifẹ̀ Oòyè
Settlement.settlement_type
City
Settlement.image_skyline
ile Ife aerial scape.jpg
Settlement.image_caption
Bird's eye view of a section of Ile Ife, Yorubaland.
Settlement.pushpin_map
Nigeria
Settlement.subdivision_type
Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1
State
Settlement.subdivision_name1
Osun
Settlement.established_title
Founded
Settlement.established_date
1000 BC ~ 500 BC
Settlement.leader_title
Ọọni
Settlement.leader_name
Ojaja II
Settlement.leader_title1
LGA Chairman, Ife Central
Settlement.leader_name1
Oladosu Olubisi
Settlement.leader_title2
LGA Chairman, Ife North
Settlement.leader_name2
Lanre Ogunyimika
Settlement.leader_title3
LGA Chairman, Ife South

via Wikipedia infobox

Travel guide

Understand

thumb|The Ade-Are crown in Ile Ife Ife Ife is the cradle of the Yoruba civilisation, the ancestral home of the race and therefore called "Land of the Source". The progenitor of the Yoruba race is Oduduwa.

Get in

From Lagos, a shared car costs ₦3,500-4,000 per person.

See

thumb|Palace of the current Ooni of Ife thumb|Opa Oromiyan thumb|Oduduwa groove where Oduduwa is believed to have descended

Go next

Osun Oshogbo Ilesha Ibadan Ilorin

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

21 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Origin of Ife: Creation of the world
  • Origin of the regional states: Dispersal from the holy city
  • Traditional setting
  • The King (''Ooni'' of Ile-Ife)
  • Cults of Divinities
  • Shrines, altars, and temples
  • Archaeology
  • Government
  • Geography
  • Climate
  • Temperature
  • Cloud cover
  • Precipitation
  • Economy
  • Education
  • Notable people
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • External links

Ifẹ̀ ( , also called Ilé-Ifẹ̀) is an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria founded sometime between the years 1000 BC and 500 BC. By 900 AD, the city had become an important West African emporium producing sophisticated art forms. The city is located in present-day Osun State. Ifẹ̀ is about 218 kilometers northeast of Lagos with a population of over 500,000 people, which is the highest in Osun State according to population census of 2006.

thumb|250px|A short introductory expose of Ile Ife in the Ufẹ̀ dialect by a native speaker

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ile Ife” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (8)

On the map

3 mapped locations