Kano

Kano is a big city in the north of Nigeria.

People have come to trade there for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Kano is a city in the north of Nigeria and the capital of Kano State, says Larousse, a big French encyclopedia. Another French encyclopedia, Universalis, calls it one of the oldest caravan towns in the country, a town that trading caravans came to.

Nigeria's census of 26 November 1991 counted 2,166,554 people in the city; only Lagos had more. City Population, which lists these counts, notes that all population figures for Nigeria have high error rates. Larousse gives an estimate of 3,270,799 people for the whole urban area in 2010.

Larousse ('Kano'): a city in the north of Nigeria, capital of Kano State; agglomeration 3,270,799 (2010 estimate); formerly the capital of the kingdom of Kano; an agricultural market (livestock, leather, groundnuts) and industrial center; university; airport. Universalis ('KANO', Pierre Vennetier): a city of Nigeria and capital of the state of the same name, one of the country's oldest caravan towns; more than three million people in the agglomeration in 2007. City Population ('Nigeria: States & Cities', National Population Commission / National Bureau of Statistics): Kano 2,166,554 (census 26 November 1991), second after Lagos (5,195,247) in its list of major cities; it notes that newer figures are not available for urban areas and that all population figures for Nigeria show high error rates.

Look at all the rooftops! They go on and on.

There are palm trees between them, and big rocks in front.

Shiraz Chakera took this photo on 13 September 2005 and called it "Kano from Dala Hill". Low buildings with flat and sloping roofs spread all the way to a hazy horizon, with palm trees here and there and one tall building far off on the left. Reddish rocks and grass of the hill fill the front of the picture. On Wikidata, Dala Hill is about 1.5 kilometers northwest of the city's point.

Universalis says narrow lanes run through the old city between compounds, whose walls enclose mud-brick buildings with flat roofs.

Commons: File:KanofromDalaHill.jpg, by Shiraz Chakera (his Flickr photo 'Kano from Dala Hill', CC BY-SA 2.0, passed by FlickreviewR on 30 September 2007), dated 13 September 2005; first uploaded by Picaroon (2007, small), the original size by Martin H. (2008), and the current, wider-than-tall version (1,712 by 1,286 pixels) by Chronus (28 April 2014). Seen in the 1,280-pixel copy: low buildings with flat and sloping roofs to the horizon, palm trees, one tall building and two masts far off, reddish rocks and grass in the foreground; the photo is more than 20 years old. Wikidata: Dala Hill (Q125759325), a hill in Kano State, 1.48 km NW of the city point. Universalis: narrow lanes run between the compounds, whose walls enclose buildings of mud brick with terrace roofs.

In Kano, people weave cloth, dye it, make pots and turn animal skins into leather.

People buy and sell animals, leather and peanuts in Kano.

Larousse calls Kano a market for farm goods, such as livestock, leather and groundnuts (peanuts). Universalis says Kano is above all a trading town: it gathers cotton and oilseeds to send to Lagos, and it sends goods out to a wide area that reaches into eastern Niger.

Old crafts are still alive: weaving, dyeing, pottery and tanning. On Wikidata, the Kofar Mata Dye Pits, old pits for dyeing cloth, are about 1 kilometer east of the city's point. Universalis lists the industries that grew from the late 20th century: building materials, steel, metalworking, cars, rubber, textiles and medicines.

Larousse: an agricultural market (livestock, leather, groundnuts) and industrial center. Universalis: besides its administrative role, above all a commercial center collecting farm produce bound for Lagos (cotton, oilseeds) and a redistribution center whose influence extends into eastern Niger; industry since the last quarter of the 20th century: building materials, iron and steel, metalworking, car assembly, rubber, textiles, pharmaceuticals; crafts remain lively: weaving, dyeing, pottery, tanning. Wikidata from the city point: Kofar Mata Dye Pits (Q109265005), a historical dyeing pit, 1.03 km E; Gidan Makama Museum (Q5559489), a museum in an old building of traditional Hausa architecture, 1.33 km SSE.