# Talk:Benin Moat

To enclose 6,500 square kilometres, a circular moat should have the lenght 2√π⋅6,500 = 286 km
Even if the city walls were extremely jagged or irregular, 16,000 km perimeter for only 6,500 km² is impossible. That’s like the wall being 2,500 times longer than needed for that area.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A01:B740:13D2:100:0:0:0:2B1 (talk) 15:23, 29 September 2025 (UTC) 

the area calculation seems way off! If the walls enclose 2500 sq mi which is 1.6 million acres. These facts need to be revisited!

reference: https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/walls-benin-0016222 Editor993 (talk) 02:01, 23 July 2024 (UTC)


### Benin Moat
This article passed GA review in October 2023 and I am going to nominate it for FA, so I will appreciate feedback in this regard. 
Thanks, Vanderwaalforces (talk) 16:34, 2 March 2025 (UTC)


#### RoySmith
To get the stupid stuff out of the way quickly, all the titles in your references have to be in Title case, regardless of how they are in the original source.
Be consistent in which set of units (metric or english) you use as your primary measure.  You've got "Elevation	150 ft 1 in (45.75 m)" (english first) but "Height	Varies, over 20 m (66 ft) in places" (metric first).  Pick one and stick with it.
You've got an odd collection of sources.  The Guardian is certainly a WP:RS for most things, but it's a general-interest publication.  For an article like this, I'd expect you to be relying almost exclusively on archeological journals, scholarly books from reputable academic publishers, and the like.  Sources like The Gardian, Vanguard News, The Nation, etc, are all going to raise questions at FAC.  I did some searches for "Benin Moat", "Benin Iya", and "Iyanuwo" in JSTOR and came up with nothing, which puzzles me.  I'm going to ping UndercoverClassicist who is my archeology guy: perhaps you could comment on the sourcing?
Ugh, I just realized UndercoverClassicist probably never got my ping because I forgot to sign the previous comment, so fixing than and applying an auto-trout.  RoySmith (talk) 15:13, 27 March 2025 (UTC)
@RoySmith Thanks for looking and pinging UC. The sources you mentioned above (which are currently used) are not unreliable sources. Although, I get the point of trying to use archaeology-centered sources, it makes total sense. Thank you also for the units for measurements. I will get through that one too and fix them as I go on. Thank you so much again. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 14:30, 15 April 2025 (UTC)


#### UC
I should preface this with the fact that I'm a classical archaeologist, and so have very little specific knowledge of African or Nigerian archaeology. With that said, I agree with Roy that the sourcing is unusual for an archaeology FA. Reliable newspapers may be appropriate for e.g. recent news, incidents or preservation efforts, but in general the bulk of the sourcing needs to be specialist, academic archaeological publications. Most of the material in the "Works cited" section seems reasonable enough, though I note that most of the works actually cited are not included there.
A few places you could look for additional bibliography:

There is a brief mention here on p. 88, but I wasn't able to access the full text on a quick search.
This book, p. 19, cites five archaeological surveys of the earthworks -- I would suggest that these should be the core of the article.
This book, p. 346f, has some good material on efforts to preserve the earthworks.
Likewise, this book (search "Benin Iya") has good material on preservation and conservation.
I found a few good hits for "Benin Iya" and "Benin [City] Moat"; very few for "Iyanuwo", but that's not necessarily a problem if that is strictly an Edo-language name and there is simply little academic work published about them in Edo. We normally give the native-language name of a site even if there isn't much scholarship in that language on it: see for instance Strata Florida Abbey, in Wales. 
On a different note, watch out for poetic, over-written prose and WP:PUFFERY -- see for instance:

Portions of the moats have yielded to residential and commercial development, experienced degradation from drainage projects, and been transformed into refuse disposal sites
These moats have deep historical roots
Traces of these ancient moats persist, visible as tree-lined embankments woven into the contemporary cityscape
UndercoverClassicist T·C 17:33, 27 March 2025 (UTC)

@UndercoverClassicist Thank you for dropping by and responding to Roy's ping. I am currently in the process of checking for additional bibliography as recommended. This source you mentioned above, I don't know, but I think the authors must be confused because the Benin Iya and Sungbo's Eredo are not the same subjects. Nevertheless, that section of their work tends to focus on Sungbo's Eredo and not Benin Iya. I am still researching for more archaeology-centered sources for now. Please let me know if you find other resources that would be useful for me. Thank you so much again. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 14:26, 15 April 2025 (UTC)


### Query
@Vanderwaalforces: It has been over a month since the last comment on this PR. Are you still interested in receiving comments? If so, I suggest asking for feedback in the Wikiprojects attached to this article. If not, would you like to close this and nominate it for FAC? Z1720 (talk) 14:04, 21 May 2025 (UTC)

@Z1720 Oh yes. Dracophyllum actually closed it earlier, I told them that I was working on this with my personal draft, so I want it open. This means that I am still going to be happy if anyone comments on it. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 14:09, 21 May 2025 (UTC)
@Vanderwaalforces: It has been another month without comments. Is this ready to be closed? Usually, the longer a PR stays open the less likely it is to get comments. Z1720 (talk) 00:50, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
@Z1720 Ah, it should be closed then. I am still working on this; I got really caught up with several other works on-wiki. I'll open another PR when I finalise on my personal draft. Thank you! Vanderwaalforces (talk) 02:12, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
@Vanderwaalforces: WP:PRG has the instructions on how to close PRs. I recommend the script. Z1720 (talk) 02:14, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
@Z1720 Script didn't work for me, I just installed it and couldn't find the "Close peer review" or anything similar. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 02:26, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
(@Vanderwaalforces: In my version of Wikipedia, it's under "Tools" at the top of the page (next to Page). Z1720 (talk) 02:28, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
@Z1720 Same here but it's not coming up for me. I've also tried clearing cache since I installed it newly. Vanderwaalforces (talk) 02:31, 27 June 2025 (UTC)
@Vanderwaalforces: There was a template missing from the page. I have manually closed the PR. Z1720 (talk) 02:36, 27 June 2025 (UTC)

The claim about "16 000 km long" makes no sense, there must have been a confusion between units at some point.
A wall of 16 000 km length would not encircle a city, it would encircle the entire african continent. Raminagrobis (talk) 15:01, 6 August 2025 (UTC)

this wall is a Fake 2A01:CB1C:1AC0:5E00:F50D:1686:F326:FFD (talk) 17:44, 29 September 2025 (UTC)