The Venice of Africa

By Miss Cellania in Travel on Mar 28, 2008 at 10:34 am

ganvie

Ganvié is a community of around 3,000 stilted buildings on Lake Nokoué in Benin. It has a population of between 20 and 30 thousand people. The town on the lake was settled several hundred years ago to protect residents from slavery, as local religious tradition forbade attacking anyone on the water. See more pictures and video of Ganvié at A Welsh View. Link

(image credit: Hugo!)


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  1. bean
    Mar 28th, 2008 at 12:12 pm

    I thought that was an overhead shot of New Orleans at first.

  2. VonSkippy
    Mar 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    30,000 people living above the lake – no wonder the water is so brown.

  3. Crash
    Mar 28th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

    VonSkippy…ewwwwwwwww

    Its kinda cool that each house has its own Island.

  4. Dourado
    Mar 28th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

    Looks like São Paulo when rain is comming!

  5. ted
    Mar 28th, 2008 at 9:09 pm

    Preventing other African tribes from capturing them to use as slaves? I can’t imagine white slavers caring whether they were on stilts or not.


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