Nigeria · Lagos State · Lagos
Makoko, Lagos — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Makoko is a waterfront district of Lagos, part of it built on stilts over the lagoon and long home to the Egun fishing community.
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Where to stay in Makoko
How the choice of base plays out on the ground.
Makoko keeps almost no rooms of its own, a working fishing settlement rather than a place of hotels. Beds lie elsewhere. Most visitors base themselves across the 3rd Mainland Bridge in the wider districts of Lagos, then come to Makoko to see the stilt houses standing over the lagoon and the fishing life of the Egun people along the water.
About Makoko
What are the main landmarks in Makoko?
Makoko marks itself by the water rather than by grand monuments, its stilt houses lined along the lagoon. The waterfront is the landmark. Nearby on the mainland stand the Rowe Park Sports Centre and the Apostolic Faith Church at Ebute Meta, while the 3rd Mainland Bridge sweeps overhead above the community and the lagoon.
What is the history of Makoko?
Makoko grew as a fishing settlement on the lagoon of mainland Lagos, its waterfront shaped by the people who came to the water. The Egun made it. Migrants of the Egun people, who moved from Badagry and the Republic of Benin, built the stilt community over the lagoon and made fishing the work of the waterfront, a trade that has held the settlement together ever since.
Where is Makoko?
Makoko lies on the lagoon of mainland Lagos, spread beneath the 3rd Mainland Bridge with its stilt houses standing over the water.
Updated October 2026