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Calabar is the capital city of Cross River State in Nigeria. It is a charming and quite peaceful place, and despite the great poverty, the people of Calabar are friendly and smile often.
Calabar is one of the oldest trading cities in the Nigeria, set on a hill overlooking the river it is quite picturesque. Calabar was established as a center of slave trade by the British in 17th century, it grew to be one of the biggest. |
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There is a lot of Colonial Architecture in the older parts of Calabar that are around Henshaw Town, Duke Town and the waterfront areas.
Duke Town church One of the oldest churches in Nigeria. It was established by the Presbyterian church missionaries. If you go to Eyamba Street just past the church there is a cemetery with stunning views over the town and river. Inside the cemetrey is the tomb of Mary Slessor, a missionary from Dundee in Scotland UK. She was very influential in this part of Nigeria.
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 | Calabar Museum, on the hill overlooking the waterfront, in the Old Government House, the former residence of the colonial governor. The building was designed and built in Glasgow and shipped over in pieces. The museum concentrates on the history of Calabar, the region and slavery. It has a larger quantity of original documents relating to Nigeria. Since it is not heavily frequented by tourists you can easily get a guided tour from one of the staff. Interested persons could spend 3 hours there and barely touch the surface of the material. There are a lot of artifacts relating to the production of palm oil in the back which are fascinating too.
The Cross River State Annual Christmas Festival held every year attracts thousands within and beyond Nigeria. The Festival which include music performance from both local and international artists, the annual Calabar carnival, Boat regatta, Fashion shows, Christmas Village, and traditional dances bring in thousands of tourists. |
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Oral tradition has it that the Calabar Kingdom and the indigenes of the old Calabar Kingdom, located at the coastal Southeastern Nigeria existed thousands of years before the current era. Many believe that the old Calabar Kingdom is the original location of the Biblical Garden of Eden.
The old Calabar Kingdom was an active trading Kingdom. The location of the Kingdom by the Atlantic Ocean helped their development of the Calabar port and trading with foreigners.
By 1905, the Kingdom already developed and was using the Manillas as currency for trading in the West African sub-regiion. The currency, the Manillas was also universally known as Okpoho, a Calabar word for money. |  |
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| http://wikitravel.org/en/Calabar |
Calabar is about 1-1/2 hours from Lagos by plane. Calabar is about 25 minutes from Port Harcourt and has an International Airport - Margret Ekpo International Airport.
Calabar is 1 hour flight from Lagos and a 4 hour drive from Port Harcourt. With the development of the city by the present administration, the city flight schedules have increased and you can now get a flight in or out of Calabar every day. Also the major airlines in the country have their presence felt in Calabar and have flights to and from major cities in the country; they include: Virgin Nigeria, Arik Air and Aero Contractors. Their flight schedules can easily be found at their respective websites. |