Imagine a lake suspended above the Earth grounds? Imagine a never-drying body of water that swallows the polychromatic gaze of the sun and rubs it on its own body? This is the pristine Ado-Awaye Lake, a conqueror of sight sprawled like one superficial embodiment of nature's grace in the peaks of the storied and ancient Ado-Awaye Mountains of Oyo State. 

Beyond all the modern problems of Nigeria, beyond its often projected outlook of environmental hazard, it is also home to countless tropical wonders and possibly, Mother Nature's own favourite artistic home. One does not need to search deep to find evidence of this fact. If one casts their gaze on this one mountainous part of Oyo State, they are sure to behold this timeless wonder of the universe. 

The Ado-Awaye suspended Lake, also known as the Iyake Lake, is one of the only two suspended Lakes in the world; with the other being the Hanging Lake located at Glenwood Canyon in the State of Colorado, United States. This makes the Lake an instant destination for thousands of tourists across Nigeria and beyond. The Lake is located in the Iyake Mountains of Ado-Awaye,—a historic community 20 kilometres from the headquarters of Iseyin Local Government in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State. 

Ado-Awaye, which is home to the beautiful Lake and eccentric mountains, is a history deeply rooted in the Oyo kingdom. The community is speculated to come about through an amalgamation of two settlements Ado and Awaiye in the Iyake Mountains around the 1500s. The Ado-Awaye Lake was renamed the Iyake Lake after an old woman from the community who specialized in the dyeing of clothes. It is believed that the old woman, known as ‘Iya Alaro’ worshipped and sacrificed to the Lake at specific times of the year. This sense of history permeates the Ado-Awaye Lake, preserving it as an essential symbol of the Oyo people. 

In climbing up to the Lake, one battles through a steepy terrain, a forest-like maze that requires grit and persistence. The arduous journey is like the metaphorical journey of life in which one wades through obstacles to make it to a rewarding height; except the mountainous streets of Ado-Awaye pays throughout the journey with the overwhelming sights of natural wonder and Earth spectacle. 

The forest maze is thick, alternating as a habitat for the scattered kingdoms of fruit-dropping monkeys that dwell on the hill. There is the ‘Ishage Rock’ a large boulder mystically situated on the hill, like a god ridden with eternal patience. The people, especially the natives to which the site is historically significant, believe that great power is enmeshed within the rock and that whoever prays to it is reciprocated with blessings. The rock is also saged to be a rainmaker, and during periods of drought, priestesses pray to it for rainfall upon their homestead. 

The heavenwards labyrinth also opens up to a plateau dotted with spectral views of the landscape. One of these views is the existence of a close-knit group of holes known as the ‘Ese Awon Agba’ which means, ‘the footprints of the elders’. Historians analyze that the holes were mostly used for grinding ingredients and tie-dye activities, but this does not serve the faith of the natives who remember it as where the ancestral elders once threaded. 

Another important and refreshing site of interest is ‘The Elephant Tree’. It is an eerie tree whose Ozymandias-like posture against the ground, its grey skin and roots like a head and trunk make it look like an Elephant. In close relation with the Ishage rock, the Iyake Lake and the Ese Awon Agba, this historic site looks like a place trapped in a timeless history. The natural elements come to look like inanimate beings gentrified by the poetic conditioning of transcendence.

The Ado-Awaye Lake sits like an open mouth of the Earth. Its water, still and rippling, reflects the sun's glow, transmuting from the colours of moss-green to turquoise and other iridescent layers. Turtles and other aquatic animals dwell in it. It is believed that the Lake is a portal to another world and that anyone who enters it, is doomed never to return. However, the water is also known to be curative, so tourists endeavour to carry liquid portions of it as an act of faith. The Lake is alive with history. Its scenic soul reverberates like an ancestral language. It is alive as a reminder that the Earth is our home and can never be killed into extinction. 

Reference Sources 

Wikipedia
Folu Oyefeso
Oloolutof
Naija Philia
Local Guides Connect
Kelechi Amadi Obi
Wikimedia Common