Yoruba TraditionSacred Site
Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove
A UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most important shrine to the goddess Oshun. Located along the Osun River in Nigeria, the grove contains ancient sculptures, shrines, and sanctuaries. The annual Osun-Osogbo Festival draws hundreds of thousands of worshippers from around the world.
About Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove
Oshun's grove on the river
The Osun-Osogbo grove is the principal surviving forest shrine of the river goddess Osun (Oshun) in Osogbo, Nigeria. Founding stories tell of Oshogbo settlers who made compact with the goddess of the river. The annual Osun-Osogbo festival is living cult, not a reconstructed antique. Ifa and praise-poetry (oriki) name Osun as a source of children and cool water. The grove's present sculptures are partly twentieth-century. The river is the older presence.
On the map
Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove among other places of the Yoruba Tradition.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Ifa / Osun oriki (oral)
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
Coordinates mark where the myths place a site, or where the tradition locates it today. Mythic realms are left off the map or marked as symbolic placements.
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