Editing Kpengla (section)

==Construction==
Kpengla was crucial in significant amount of construction in Abomey and the kingdom.<ref name=Monroe&Ogndiran>{{cite book|title=Power and Landscape in Atlantic West Africa|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=London|author=J. Cameron Monroe|author2=Akinwumi Ogundiran }}</ref>   Kpengla may have been the king to establish the [[Dahomey#Royal Road|royal road]] of Dahomey, a wide road from Whydah to Cana and then to Abomey.  This width of this road and its maintenance were unique in West Africa for the time and the Cana to Abomey stretch was maintained and impressed European visitors for the next century.<ref name=Alpern>{{cite journal|last=Alpern|first=Stanley B.|title=Dahomey's Royal Road|journal=History in Africa|year=1999|volume=26|pages=11–24|doi=10.2307/3172135|jstor=3172135|s2cid=161238713 }}</ref> Lionel Abson, head of the English fort at Whydah, first reported of the project in the 18th century. According to Abson, in 1779 the king;
{{quote|ordered all his subjects to set about clearing the paths, giving each caboceer (chief) a string, measuring ten yards, the intended width of roads. Thus a spacious communication was opened, not only between each town and the capital, but all the way down to the beach [at Why-dah]. With incredible labour and fatigue, a passage was cut through the wood at Apoy; the [[Gully|gullies]] were filled up, and the hurdle bridges, over the swamps, were widened. When this work was completed, the King said, with a vainglorious air, If any one be desirous of paying me a visit, he shall not have it to say, that thorns or briars impede his march....|Abson.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pr-PDwAAQBAJ&dq=Abomey+Cana+Road&pg=PA65|last=Alpern|first=Stanley B. |year=2018 |title=Abson & Company: Slave Traders in Eighteenth-century West Africa |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=65 |isbn=9781849049627}}</ref><ref name=Alpern/>}}