What is mysterious about the Ikogosi Warm Spring

In the heart of Ikogosi, a small, quiet town with rich, local customs, in the Western part of Ekiti State (Ekiti Tourism Corridor), lies a warm spring which has now catapulted Ikogosi-Ekiti to national and international limelight.

What is mysterious about the Ikogosi Warm Spring is the fact that, flowing side by side the warm spring, is another spring, a cold one. According to experts, it is a geological wonder to have such occurrence out of the same rock formation and this Ekiti flagship tourist destination is said to be the only one of its kind discovered anywhere in the world. The warm and cold springs of Ikogosi originate from a close proximity, come to a meeting point, and flow onward together with each spring retaining its thermal identity. It represents another uniqueness and is the first of such occurrence in the world. The warm spring has a temperature of up to 70oC at the source and 37oC after meeting the cold spring. The meeting point of the warm and cold springs is a unique attraction to tourists.

The springs sprout out and flow with a constant temperature and volume up to 150 litres/seconds from morning till night, at all seasons, all-year round. The whole environment of the spring has been deliberately left untampered with, for eco-tourism appeal while the source of the warm spring has been provided with a viewing structure for easy spotting by tourists. Strangely also, there is a tree and a palm growing from the same source at the meeting point area of the warm and cold springs. A wonderful work of Mother Nature!

here are a few legends surrounding the origin and discovery of the Warm Spring and have been passed down generations for centuries. One such myth says that the warm and cold springs were the two wives of a great hunter. One of his wives was said to be temperamental while the other was a quiet woman. One day, the two wives had a fight and after being rebuked by their husband, the temperamental wife changed to the warm spring while the quiet one turned to the cold spring.

Another legend has it that a powerful hunter, while hunting for animals in the forest, first found the warm spring. After the discovery, he went to town with the story and the townspeople on learning about curative powers of the spring, started to worship the spring.
Whatever is the true situation remains to be found out as the story of the Ikogosi Warm Spring is told elsewhere and nothing might be compared to taking a trip to this serenity place to see things for oneself.