Overtaken by night or darkness:
— Benighted (or nighted) travelers hurrying toward home.

synonym: nighted.

Roget 491: ignorant; nescient; unknowing, unaware, unacquainted, unapprised, unapprized^†, unwitting, unweeting^†, unconscious; witless, weetless^†; a stranger to; unconversant^†.    uninformed, uncultivated, unversed, uninstructed, untaught, uninitiated, untutored, unschooled, misguided, unenlightened; Philistine; behind the age.    shallow, superficial, green, rude, empty, half-learned, illiterate; unread, uninformed, uneducated, unlearned, unlettered, unbookish; empty-headed, dizzy, wooly-headed; pedantic; in the dark; benighted, belated; blinded, blindfolded; hoodwinked; misinformed; au bout de son latin, at the end of his tether, at fault; at sea etc. (uncertain) 475; caught tripping.    unknown, unapprehended, unexplained, unascertained, uninvestigated^†, unexplored, unheard of, not perceived; concealed etc. 528; novel.    ... show more

Lacking enlightenment or knowledge or culture:
— This benighted country.
— Benighted ages of barbarism and superstition.

synonym: dark.

Roget 421: dark, darksome^†, darkling; obscure, tenebrious^†, sombrous^†, pitch dark, pitchy, pitch black; caliginous^†; black etc. (in color) 431.    sunless, lightless etc. (sun) (light), etc. 423; somber, dusky; unilluminated etc. (illuminate) etc. 420^†; nocturnal; dingy, lurid, gloomy; murky, murksome^†; shady, umbrageous; overcast etc. (dim) 422; cloudy etc. (opaque) 426; darkened; etc. v.. dark as pitch, dark as a pit, dark as Erebus [Lat.].    benighted; noctivagant^†, noctivagous^†.    ... show more