Erinle River
river in Nigeria
The Erinle River () is a river in the ancient town of Ido-Osun, Egbedore Local Government Area, Osun State, Nigeria, a right tributary of the Osun River, which it enters from the north near Ido-Osun, just below the Erinle Dam. Another reservoir, the new Erinle Dam, lies higher up the river. Water from the two dams supplies Osogbo, the state capital. A few meters away from the river lies the M.K.O. Abiola International Airport, Ido-Osun and also the defunct Electricity Cooperation of Nigeria, Erinle Power Station in Ido-Osun, Osun state.
Name
In the Yoruba tradition, Erinle is an ancient area in Ido-Osun, known to house large numbers of elephants and hippos in the old times. The area is highly significant in Ido-Osun as this is a spot or confluence where the Osunronke the ancestral mother of Ido-Osun princes who turned to river to show the route back home after the slavery voyage of the Ijebu-Ekiti invasion of Ido-Osun whose Old name was Igbo Oyiowo (Oyiowo Forest) when the mystic Osun river line lead the people back home, it connected with the Iyalupo River which was a link river from Otin and Oba river.
This is also known all over Yorùbáland.This is where Osun state got its name, also the source of the popular Osun festival and a major part of Ido-Osun Kingdom history
The cult of Erinle is found in towns throughout the former Oyo Empire. Due to the prominence of elephants in this area at that time, its referred to as Ile Erin (Elephant's Land) which became Erinle (Erin "Elephants" and Ile "Land")
Till date, Osunronke is held dear to people of Ido-Osun, Osogbo and many other Osun Indigenes hence the connection with Erinle River.
The name may be derived from erin (elephant) and ilẹ (earth), or from erin and ile (house).
Course
The Erinle River rises just south of Offa.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Erinle River” is river in Nigeria. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Erinle, River and river, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “river in Nigeria” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17747307. Authority coordinates are 7.755, 4.450. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Erinle River” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.