Oyo is a city in Oyo State, Nigeria. It was founded as the capital of the remnant of the historic Oyo empire in the 1830s, and is known to its people as 'New Oyo' to distinguish it from the former capital to the north, 'Old Oyo', which had been deserted as a result of the Yoruba Revolutionary Wars. Its inhabitants are mostly of the Yoruba people, and its ruler is the Alaafin of Oyo.