Once, Nigeria had 450 unique priceless stones; today, only 119 found
Despite the festivities that attended the return of two Ikom Monoliths recovered in France and formally handed over to authorities of the National Commission of Museums and Monuments (NCMM) on 26 January, 2010 at Reiz Hotel, Abuja by the French Embassy; one can authoritatively reveal that this particular aspect of Nigeria's classical antiquity has been looted beyond imagination. The ancient stone sculptures called "Ikom Monoliths" or "Nkarasi Monoliths", derived these names from the village or town nearest to the settlement, where the earliest object was unearthed. Lately, Bakor seems to be replacing Ikom as prefix to these monoliths' name because all the settlements, where the stones have been found fall under Bakor community, which covers a vast, land area between Ikom and Ogoja towns. Ogoja is in northern part of Cross River, while Ikom stands in this state's central parts. Read more
For the past couple of years, these mysterious circles of carved stone figures, which villagers in southern Nigeria still worship on occasion, have been causing a frenzy of excitement here. Newspapers have trumpeted the Ikom monoliths - phallic-shaped pieces of volcanic rock largely ignored for centuries - as being remnants of a glorious civilization made up in equal parts of Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament. One theory even cites them as evidence that the biblical Garden of Eden lay in what is now Nigeria.