6. South-East Hills and Ridges

South-east Nigeria is endowed with picturesque massifs, escarpments, residual hills and ridges, some of which are hydrothermally mineralized or contain beds of fossil fuels. In addition, dry valleys, springs, and caves occur. The landscape displays a gradual rise from the south to the Obudu Highland in the north-east, but a similar ascent from the west to the east, towards the maximum elevation in the Obudu Highland, is interrupted by the Nsukka Escarpment and associated hills, which form an elongated north-east to the south-west ridge. The escarpment is a 400-km-long seahorse-shaped structurally monoclinal line of hills, extending from beyond the Nsukka area in the north to Afikpo in the south. It is about 60 km wide in the Nsukka area but tapers to 2 km at Afikpo and has a maximum elevation of 590 m a.s.l. at Ukehe.