The Venice of Africa

Posted by Miss Cellania in Travel & Places on March 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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COMMENT

5 comments to "The Venice of Africa"

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

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

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

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

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

    VonSkippy…ewwwwwwwww

    Its kinda cool that each house has its own Island.

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

    Looks like São Paulo when rain is comming!

  5. ted
    March 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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