ARTICLE 2b. Images of the burnt city. The British looting and burning went far beyond the palace as they sought to destroy the ancient city in total -- which was then promptly photographed by themselves to show, in that book by the British propagandist, L. Roth, 'how dirty the Africans were'. The first image is of a street in the ancient city, Benin City. The burnt pillar manages to retain the stylized emblems. Notice use of the 'bird of prophesy' as decoration at its base. This motif of the bird seems to have been used at entrances. Notice also the decorative striations on the sides of the pillars in the first image, which is Edo Architecture proper — though many groups all across the region (ie as far west as the Ewe and Asante in Ghana ) share very similar architecture, such as pillars and the low relief decorations on altars (see in the second image). The horizon ribbed indentations however appear to be particular to Edo Architecture Both images were photographe