Ogbomosho

Ogbomosho grew from a hunters' settlement between Oyo and Ilorin. Its founding tradition remembers Ogunlola, who settled with his wife Esuu beneath an ajagbon tree and came to lead the community. Stories explain the town's name through his victory over the warrior Elemoso, whose head he brought to the Alaafin of Oyo. Ogunlola became the first ruler known as the Soun. In the nineteenth-century wars that disturbed northern Yorubaland, people from abandoned towns sought refuge at Ogbomosho.

The later city of Oyo also lies here.