About
Driving South into Abuja on the main highway, it is impossible to miss the Abuja Airplane House. Rising above the city on a grassy hill, the massive villa of the Said family is visible from a mile away.
Liza Said, a Lebanese immigrant to Nigeria had always loved traveling. She and her husband, a contractor named Jammal, married in the 1980s and were living in Nigeria. Willing to promise the world for her love, Jammal agreed to one day build a plane-shaped home for her as a symbol of their love and her love of travel. For years, the promise remained unfulfilled, until the in the early 1999, the Said family found the perfect location for their dream home.
Construction began in 2002, with Jammal overseeing every step of the process. Wanting to make everything perfect for his wife, Jammal began work on a 100-foot long plane with a wingspan of 50 feet extending over the sides of the hilltop villa. Spanning the entire roof, the body of the plane features a kitchen and a computer room inside the cockpit that looks out over Abuja.
Along with the main villa, the property features a number of other aircraft-styled structures. Behind the main house is a smaller, plane-topped guest house and a two-story security booth created to resemble an aircraft control tower.
Published
October 10, 2011
