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Description of Pankshin
Pankshin is a notable Local Government area in Plateau state, Nigeria; it has its headquarters in Pankshin town. This local government covers an area of 1,524km2 with its highest elevation reaching up to 1371m. As of 2006, Pankshin recorded a population of 191,685 in the town. The town is located at longitude 9, 4500 (92660.0) and latitude 9,3333 (91959.9880N)
The weather condition of pankshin could be severely cold especially during harmattan period. Most times, smog is formed, making it difficult for vehicles to access the road.
Pankshin is a traditional town heritage of the Ngas and Mupun, Miship, Fier, Tal, Kadung, Pal & Bijim People of plateau state. According to history, Pankshin town is one of the oldest towns in Nigeria and in plateau state under the state formation of Benue Plateau. Pankshin is often considered as one of the coldest parts of Plateau state with its temperature reaching about 190C -230C most days, however, the town is divided into two parts- old pankshin and new pankshin due to the level of development that has taken place recently.
Urban growth
Since the creation of new Pankshin town, more structures and facilities have been built and the town is rapidly growing with newer development and settlements.
The new Pankshin town is organised with beautiful buildings with modern roofs. There you find new general hospitals, police stations, many primary schools and secondary schools within the new town of pankshin, while there are also few old buildings with rusted roofs and few old social facilities located at one corner of the town. A lot of farming activities take place in the outskirt of the town, and the market and shops are at the new layout. There are few scattered networks also; very few roads are tarred, while majority of the roads are un-tarred which makes accessibility very difficult, especially if you are moving with a car
However, there many other amenities located in Pankshin town such as MTN mask,water dam, Federal College of Education, College of Health Tecnology and few reservoirs. The town has many eye-catching rocks which are mostly visited by visitors and scholars for research purpose, picnics, hiking and for other recreational activities.
Tourism
Pankshin local government is a cool and hospitable town to frequent; many individuals who have ever gone there enjoyed their stay, you get to see a lot of fantastic, structures, sites and arenas, the most popular arena seen in pankshin town is the Nefur Arena. Nefur arena is situated in the heart of Pankshin town; it is an area for the display of cultural tourism, this is an open compound lowly built with stones or semi-circle of stones, neatly arranged up to 3 feet high and wide for different gathering and other cultural purpose like song and dance presentation and for a brief consultation.The arena is commonly used by the Ngas traditional people- for Pusdung festival of cultural reservation. It is a place for performance of all kinds of traditional dances, local town meetings, civic receptions and it is used for discussion of political functions.
Picture of Nefur arena- this arena is used for yearly celebration of “pusdung” Ngas cultural festival.
The Pankshin local Government Council constructed the arena in the 1970s; this was constructed in this location due to the topographical nature of the site. However, there is also a similar setting in the City of Greek; in this case, it is called Amphitheatre. Within the Nefur premises there are very few tall trees that were planted over 50 years ago until now, these trees are usually used for studying past climatic conditions of the pankshin town and they also serve as shades from the sun.
Picture of crowd celebrating Pusdung festival At Nefur Arena in Pankshin local government area.