{
    "parent": [
        {
            "@link": {
                "type": "reference"
            },
            "summary_title": "Nigeria",
            "admin": {
                "uid": "hmc-place-258",
                "id": "place-258",
                "uuid": "c5d2f3bb-7c31-3d01-98dd-686ff947a86e"
            }
        }
    ],
    "projects": [
        "CollectionsPeopleStories"
    ],
    "level": {
        "value": "15"
    },
    "summary_title": "Benin City",
    "thesaurus": {
        "date": [
            {
                "earliest": 2013,
                "value": "2013-02-15",
                "latest": 2013
            }
        ],
        "@link": {
            "role": [
                {
                    "value": "is part of"
                }
            ],
            "type": "literal"
        },
        "name": [
            {
                "value": "Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1994"
            }
        ]
    },
    "name": [
        {
            "type": "preferred",
            "value": "Benin City",
            "primary": true
        }
    ],
    "options": {
        "flag2": "N",
        "flag1": "N",
        "option1": "CollectionsPeopleStories"
    },
    "admin": {
        "processed": 1738951424890,
        "sequence": 7586544,
        "uid": "hmc-place-2826",
        "added": 1664637554481,
        "stream": "collections-online",
        "id": "place-2826",
        "source": "hmc",
        "uuid": "0467fb4f-dbc5-36b8-9acd-bb1add311bc3"
    },
    "description": [
        {
            "value": "The inhabitants of Benin call themselves and their language (and, in the past, their capital) Edo, and claim to have inhabited the tropical forest in south central Nigeria which is their homeland for over a thousand years. At its peak, in the 16th century, the Benin Empire stretched much further, to Ouidah in the Republic of Benin, Ekiti in the north-west and the Niger River in the east. \n\n According to tradition the Edo state was founded by the god Osanobua who sent his various sons to live on the earth. Each was asked what present he would like to help him establish himself there. The younger son was told by a bird to ask for a worthless snail shell. When the brothers arrived they were distressed to find that the earth was covered with water and their various gifts, apart from that of the younger son, were worthless. The younger son upturned his shell and sand began to flow and cover the world until land was formed. The younger son sold some of the land to his brothers and retained the rest, where he established the Edo nation. Successive rulers of Benin all trace their descent from this mythical ruler of the sky. \n\nBenin has had relations with Europe since the 15th century when it traded with the Portuguese in ivory, pepper and slaves. Not until the Portuguese were replaced with other European powers did Britain take an active interest in the kingdom's possible strategic importance, and after a serious armed dispute, in 1897 a contingent of 1500 men converged on Benin. In the process the city was burnt and its inhabitants fled. The king was captured and placed in exile until he died in 1914. The same year his son was allowed to return to Benin where he rebuilt the palace and revived some ancestral rituals under the watching eyes of the British administration."
        }
    ],
    "type": {
        "base": "place"
    }
}