ARTICLE 2a The burnt remains of a ruined doorway leading into a family compound. / The image of the doorway in the document below, is from a photograph taken by one of the looters on that day in 1987 and is ironically an example of how the invaders went to great length to record their destruction of Life and Arts and Architecture of the Benin Empire supposedly to 'show' how laid to waste or 'dirty' the ancient city was. For example, what the invaders referred to as 'ditch' was an elaborate moat system, often with inlaid steps and which were fortified by Oba Esigie in the late 1500s in great foresight upon realizing that the subkingdoms under the Benin Empire had all been lost as if overnight and a new form of personality was being groomed by the Europeans as 'chief'. To Esigie's mind, the debilitating trade was essentially robbing his kingdom of the vast people under the empire built by his grandfather. In a bid to stop the new and fast arriving