Kano (city)

Kano كَنُواْ‎ (Hausa)
City
Left to right from top: Gidan Rumfa/Emir's Palace, the Ancient Kano City Walls, courtyard of Gidan Makama, city neighborhood, traditional dyer at the Kofar Mata Dye Pits, and city skyline from Dalla Hill
Flag
Map of Nigeria showing the location of Kano Show map of Nigeria Kano (city) (Africa) Show map of Africa
Coordinates: 12°00′N 8°31′E / 12.000°N 8.517°E / 12.000; 8.517
Country	Nigeria
State	Kano State
Government
• Emir	Aminu Ado Bayero
Area
• City	499 km2 (193 sq mi)
• Urban	251 km2 (97 sq mi)
Elevation	488 m (1,601 ft)
Population  (2006 census)
• City	2,828,861
• Estimate  (2022)	4,648,400
• Rank	2nd
• Density	5,700/km2 (15,000/sq mi)
	[1]
GDP (PPP, constant 2015 values)
• Year	2023
• Total	$26.4 billion[2]
• Per capita	$6,100
Time zone	UTC+1 (WAT)
Climate	Aw

Kano (Ajami: كَنُواْ) is a city in northern Nigeria and the capital of Kano State.^[3] It is the second largest city in Nigeria after Lagos, with over ten million citizens living within 449 km² (173 sq mi).^[4] Located in the Savanna, south of the Sahel, Kano is a major route of the trans-Saharan trade, having been a trade and human settlement for millennia. It is the traditional state of the Dabo dynasty who have ruled as emirs over the city-state since the 19th century. Kano Emirate Council is the current traditional institution inside the city boundaries of Kano, and under the authority of the Government of Kano State.^[5]

The city is one of the seven medieval Hausa kingdoms. The principal inhabitants of the city are the Hausa people. Centuries before British colonization, Kano was strongly cosmopolitan with settled populations of Arab, Tuareg, Kanuri and Fula and remains so with the Hausa language spoken as a lingua-franca by over 70 million speakers in the region.^{[citation needed]}

Islam arrived in the city in the 11th century or earlier primarily through the trans-Saharan trade. As a result, Kano became wealthy and the commercial nerve centre of the region and Northern Nigeria, and is still associated as the "centre of commerce".^{[citation needed]}