Surame is Africa's largest stone construction, many time larger than Great Zimbabwe; and it deserves to be better known. Built in the C16th by the Songhai under Kanta, the stone walls were once strengthened with mortar, as were those at its satellite town of Gungu and another Songhai town, Banga. The large central area contains Kanta's house and well and is pierced by seven gates. Three concentric enclosures surround this inner wall; and there are three other much small enclosures appended. This erstwhile capital was abandoned after only a couple of centuries and, although its bleak wilderness site suffers from sheet erosion, late stone age tools, sherds and tobacco-pipe fragments have been noted. It is one of many sites well worth visiting in Nigeria if one is prepared to walk its imposing walls.