Sukur Cultural Landscape lies in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa State, in northeastern Nigeria near the Cameroon border. UNESCO describes a hilltop settlement at about 1,045 metres above sea level, around 290 kilometres from Yola, the state capital. The heritage property is not a single monument: its meaning comes from the relationship among a living community, cultivated slopes, stone-built places and the routes that connect them. The view across the terraces reveals a landscape shaped by generations of work, belief and local authority.
UNESCO inscribed Sukur on the World Heritage List in 1999, recognizing its cultural traditions, material heritage and terraced fields. The listed core covers 764.4 hectares, with a buffer zone of 1,178.1 hectares; the wider property area is reported as 1,942.5 hectares. It was Africa’s first cultural landscape inscribed on the list. The designation focuses on the integrity of the settlement and its surroundings, not on a single palace or viewpoint. Sukur is also a Nigerian national monument, and its community remains central to how the place is maintained.