28/07/2025
This is not Dubai. This is the Kuri-Wakko Dunes in Yusufari, Yobe State, Nigeria.
Far away in the northeastern corner of Nigeria lies one of the country’s most breathtaking natural wonders, the Kuri-Wakko Dunes, a stretch of majestic sand hills in Yusufari Local Government Area of Yobe State, near the border with the Republic of Niger.
Often mistaken for scenes out of the Arabian Desert, these golden dunes are part of the Sahel-Saharan ecological transition zone, shaped over thousands of years by wind erosion and shifting desert boundaries. Rising and falling like waves frozen in time, the dunes stand as a silent testament to Nigeria’s geographic diversity, far beyond the tropical forests and oil-rich deltas most people associate with the country.
Historically, the Yusufari area lies along ancient trans-Saharan trade routes where merchants once caravanned across the Sahel, linking the Kanem-Bornu Empire with North Africa. These routes not only carried salt, leather, and kola nuts, but also Islamic scholars and architecture that shaped much of the region’s identity.
Today, the Kuri-Wakko Dunes remain relatively unknown, but they are a hidden jewel with enormous potential for eco-tourism, photography, and cultural heritage exploration.
Unlike Dubai’s man-made marvels, this landscape is entirely natural raw, untouched, and deeply rooted in centuries of desert history.
Nigeria is more than what the world assumes. Breathtaking desert is not just in Dubai, it lives right here, in the north of Nigeria.
