Ile-Ife — often called simply Ife — holds a singular place in Yoruba culture: this is where, according to tradition, Oduduwa descended from the heavens on a chain and created the earth. Whether or not you subscribe to the cosmology, the city has a legitimate claim to being one of the oldest urban centres in West Africa, and the archaeological record backs it up. The Ife bronzes and terracottas discovered here, some dating to the 12th–14th centuries, rank among the finest sculpture produced anywhere in the medieval world.
The city sits in Osun State in southwestern Nigeria, about 85 km northeast of Ibadan and 210 km from Lagos. It's a university town — Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) sprawls across a leafy campus on the edge of the city — which gives it an intellectual energy that distinguishes it from many Nigerian cities of comparable size.
The main reason to come is the Ife National Museum, which houses a collection of bronze and terracotta heads that stopped the European art world cold when they first came to wider attention in the early 20th century. The naturalism and technical mastery of the castings are extraordinary. The museum is compact but its contents are world-class; allow at least two hours.
Beyond the museum, the Ooni's Palace and the Ife-Modakeke area have a complicated modern history — communal tensions between the Ife and Modakeke communities erupted repeatedly in the late 20th century — but the city today is calm. The OAU campus is pleasant to walk and its natural history museum is worth a look. The Osun-Oshogbo Sacred Grove, a UNESCO World Heritage Site dedicated to the Yoruba river goddess, is about 30 km north and makes an easy half-day trip.