Stilt houses in the lake village Ganvie, raised on piles all over Lake Nokoué, near Cotonou, Benin
Ganvie, Benin, Africa; November 10, 2019; Ganvie is a lake village in Benin, Africa, lying in Lake Nokoué, near Cotonou. It is probably the largest lake village in Africa.
Stilt houses are raised on piles all over the lake. The village was created in the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries by the Tofinu people who took to the lake to avoid Fon warriors who were capturing slaves for sale to European traders. The village was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on October 31, 1996 in the Cultural category.