Jos is one of Nigeria's most distinctive cities: perched on a granite plateau more than 1,200 metres high, it enjoys a cool, mild climate that sets it completely apart from the heat of the rest of the country. Its landscapes of rocky hills, granite outcrops and green valleys earned it nicknames like 'the Switzerland of Nigeria', and for much of the 20th century it was a climate refuge and a holiday destination for those looking to escape the sticky heat of the lowlands.
The city grew on the back of tin mining: for decades the Jos Plateau was one of the world's great tin-mining centres, which drew miners, traders and workers from across the country and abroad, and gave Jos a cosmopolitan, diverse character. That heritage shows in its mix of peoples, its industrial history and its cultural role, with institutions such as the Jos National Museum, one of the most important in Nigeria.
This guide explores Jos and its plateau with a practical eye: the National Museum and its traditional architecture complex, the city's wildlife park, the spectacular rock formations such as Riyom Rock and the Shere Hills, the waterfalls in the surrounding area and the cool climate that makes this tableland a corner of Nigeria like no other. A destination of nature, history and fresh air in the heart of the country.
The Jos Plateau region is one of the cradles of civilisation in West Africa: more than two thousand years ago the Nok culture flourished here, famous for its astonishing terracotta sculptures, the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa. The modern city of Jos was born and grew in the early 20th century with the tin-mining boom under British rule, which turned it into a cosmopolitan centre. Its cool climate made it a holiday destination and home to key cultural institutions. Capital of Plateau State, it has experienced intercommunal tensions in recent decades. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Nigeria's great north: the cool Jos Plateau where the Nok culture was born, the wildlife of Yankari and ancient Kano, a crossroads of the Saharan caravans.
Read the history of The north: the Jos Plateau, Yankari and the cities of the Sahel →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The history of the Jos region goes back far beyond the modern city. These highlands in central Nigeria were the cradle of one of the most remarkable and mysterious civilisations of ancient Africa: the Nok culture. It flourished roughly between 1500 BC and AD 500, and takes its name from the village of Nok, in the area, where some astonishing terracotta sculptures first turned up during mining work in the early 20th century.
These fired-clay figures, human heads and bodies of expressive beauty with distinctive eyes and elaborate hairstyles, are considered the oldest sculptures in sub-Saharan Africa, and they place the Jos Plateau among humanity's great artistic centres. The Nok culture is also one of the first in West Africa with evidence of iron smelting, which makes it a key link in the continent's technological history.
Many of these treasures were found during tin mining on the plateau, and today the finest pieces are kept at the National Museum in Jos, which is why it is an institution of continental importance. The Nok culture is a reminder that long before the Europeans arrived, these granite hills were already home to a sophisticated civilisation, with an art that still amazes the world two thousand years later.
Long before the city of Jos existed, the plateau was home to an extraordinary diversity of peoples. Its rocky hills, valleys and natural shelters helped many communities survive for centuries (Berom, Afizere, Anaguta, Mwaghavul, Ngas and many others), each with its own language and culture. In fact, the Plateau highlands are one of the most linguistically diverse regions in all of Nigeria, and by extension in Africa.
There is a historical reason for this fragmentation. During the centuries when the great Hausa kingdoms of the plains were expanding, and later during the jihad that founded the Sokoto Caliphate in the early 19th century, many small peoples found refuge from raids and enslavement in the heights and crags of the plateau. The rocks and hills that tourists admire today were natural fortresses for those communities, and they let them keep their independence and their traditions.
So the Jos Plateau reached the 20th century as a mosaic of indigenous peoples, highland farmers closely tied to their granite surroundings. That diversity is one of the region's great cultural riches. As would become clear later, it was also one of the sources of the tensions that shaped its recent history, when a huge influx of outsiders upset balances that had lasted for centuries.
The modern city of Jos was born in the early 20th century, and tin was what drove it. The British discovered that the plateau was enormously rich in cassiterite, the ore tin is extracted from, and from the first decade of the century they launched intensive mining. A railway was laid, mines were opened and people poured in: European miners, engineers and traders, along with labourers and workers from all over Nigeria and abroad (including many Hausa and, later, people from across the country), drawn by jobs and business.
Jos grew quickly into a cosmopolitan mining town, one of the world's great tin-producing centres for much of the 20th century. Its population became extraordinarily diverse, with Europeans, Lebanese and Nigerians of every background living alongside the indigenous peoples of the plateau. Mining transformed the landscape, leaving lakes and mounds wherever digging had taken place, and it transformed society too, mixing cultures and religions into a unique melting pot.
The cool climate of the highlands made Jos even more appealing. The British turned it into a kind of 'hill station', a place to rest and spend the summer away from the heat of the lowlands, with colonial-style hotels and residences. Symbols of that past remain, such as the historic Hill Station Hotel. Jos earned a reputation as a pleasant, cool and open city, 'the home of peace and tourism', a motto the following decades would put to the test.
Throughout the 20th century, and especially after Nigeria's independence in 1960, Jos built a special role in the country as a centre of culture, education and leisure. Its mild climate, its landscapes of rocks and hills and its cosmopolitan atmosphere made it a summer destination, a base for schools and institutions, and home to a lively art and music scene. The city became a meeting point for Nigerians of every background.
On the cultural side, the creation of the National Museum in Jos in 1952 and of the neighbouring Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture (MOTNA) gave the city first-rate heritage importance. The museum, keeper of the Nok terracottas and of a large archaeological and ethnographic collection, and MOTNA, with its replicas of traditional architecture from all over the country, made Jos a kind of capital of Nigeria's material memory, visited by scholars and travellers.
When Plateau became a state and Jos its capital, the city also took on an administrative role. For decades it kept its reputation as a quiet, cool and welcoming place, proud of its diversity and of its motto of peace and tourism. Beneath that friendly image, though, tensions were building over land, politics, religion and the old distinction between 'indigenous' peoples and 'settlers', and they would erupt with force at the start of the 21st century.
The new century brought Jos some painful chapters. From 2001 onwards, the city and the plateau went through repeated episodes of intercommunal violence. The clashes mixed ethnic tensions, religious ones (between mostly Christian and mostly Muslim populations) and disputes between farmers and herders over land and resources, all within the wider context of the conflicts in Nigeria's 'Middle Belt'. These outbreaks of violence claimed many lives and left a deep mark on a city that had been proud of how its communities lived together.
The crisis put the old motto of 'home of peace and tourism' to the test and hurt the image and the economy of Jos, tourism included. Even so, the city lost neither its identity nor its attractions, and over the years it has worked to rebuild coexistence and to regain its role as a cultural and climate landmark in central Nigeria. The security situation has kept changing, so visitors today are advised to get good information before travelling and to get around with local contacts.
Beyond these challenges, Jos today still offers what made it special: a cool climate unique in Nigeria, spectacular granite landscapes such as Riyom Rock and the Shere Hills, waterfalls, a wildlife park and, above all, the historical depth of a region that was the cradle of the Nok culture and a melting pot of dozens of peoples. From ancient terracotta art to the tin boom, and from colonial climate refuge to present-day tensions, the history of Jos sums up much of the light and shade of modern Nigeria.
