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Jos is the capital and largest city of Plateau State in central Nigeria, set on the Jos Plateau at 1,217 m and famous for its cool climate, rocky hills and tin-mining past. Its top sights are Jos Museum with its architecture museum and zoo, Jos Wildlife Park, the Shere Hills and the balanced boulders of Riyom Rock.
The Nok people, skilled artisans of around 1000 BC, lived in the Jos area, which was later home to the Berom, Anaguta and Afizere. Jos grew quickly after the British found large tin deposits during colonial rule, earning the name Tin City, and it became capital of Benue-Plateau State in 1967 and of Plateau State in 1975.
The city had about 900,000 people at the 2006 census. Monthly averages stay between 21 and 25 °C, nights can fall to 7 °C from mid-November to late January, and the mild weather has long drawn visitors. Jos lies about 179 km from Abuja and is served by Yakubu Gowon Airport, though its rail line no longer runs.
Jos Museum in Jos, Nigeria, was opened in 1952 by Bernard Fagg as the first public museum in West Africa. Its first displays were mostly Nok terracotta figures, and the museum complex also holds a zoo, a botanical garden, a pottery museum and a library of Arabic manuscripts.
The Museum of Traditional Nigerian Architecture at Jos Museum in Jos, Nigeria, is an open-air display of life-size replicas of buildings from across the country. They range from the walls of Kano and the mosque at Zaria to a Tiv village, and stand among the trees of the museum grounds.
The Colonial Railway Exhibit at Jos Museum in Jos, Nigeria, recalls the railway that carried tin from the Jos Plateau to the ports of Lagos and Port Harcourt. A small steam locomotive stands under a shelter in the grounds, and colonial-era displays cover the railway and tin mining.
The Afizere Settlement at Jos Museum in Jos, Nigeria, is named after the Afizere, who with the Berom and Anaguta are regarded as the earliest settlers of the Jos area. Signed as 100 steps, a rocky path climbs past boulders and thatched huts to a viewpoint looking out over the city.
Jos Zoo stands beside Jos Museum in Jos, Nigeria, as part of the museum complex founded by Bernard Fagg. It began unofficially in 1955 and was formally set up in 1960, and its enclosures have held animals such as camels, crocodiles, baboons and marabou storks.
Jos Wildlife Park lies on the Jos-Miango road about 5 km from Jos, Nigeria, and covers about 8 square kilometres of savanna bush. Set up in 1972 under governor Joseph Gomwalk, it is home to elephants, lions, hyenas, pythons, crocodiles, elands, gazelles and ostriches.
The pine forest of Jos Wildlife Park near Jos, Nigeria, is one of the park's picnic spots, along with Vongnifwel Hill, which at 1,345 m is the highest point east of Jos. Tall pines shade its paths and resting areas, a quiet break from the animal enclosures elsewhere in the park.
The University of Jos, or Unijos, is a federal university in Jos, Nigeria, that began in 1971 as a satellite campus of the University of Ibadan. It became a separate university in 1975 and opened with 575 students in 1976, and former head of state Yakubu Gowon later taught political science there.
The Shere Hills are a range of rolling hills and rock formations on the Jos Plateau, about 10 km east of Jos, Nigeria. They are the highest point of the plateau and the third highest in Nigeria, with piled granite boulders on their slopes and a prime view of the city below.
Riyom Rock is a pile of boulders balanced on top of one another at Riyom, near Jos in Nigeria's Plateau State, seen from the main Jos-Akwanga road. One of its rocks resembles a clown's hat, and the formation, featured on many things from Plateau, has become a trademark of the state.
Assop Falls is a waterfall on the Assop River in Plateau State, Nigeria, on the Jos-Kagoro road about 64 km from Jos. Water drops over rocks into a pool ringed by savanna and gallery forest, and the falls are a popular picnic stop on the drive between Jos and Abuja.
The Jos Plateau, which gives Plateau State its name, rises around Jos in central Nigeria to an average height of 1,280 m. Covering 8,600 square kilometres, it is the largest area above 1,000 m in Nigeria, with granite hills and boulders and the sources of rivers such as the Kaduna.
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