Site Lacustre de Ganvié

There is a bit of competition around now for the first lacustrine “Stilt village” inscription! Ghana placed Nzulezu Stilt settlement on its T List in 2000 and Brunei seems likely to put Kamphong Ayer on its initial T List soon. Myanmar, on the other hand, seems to have given up with the Inle Lake villages! Ganvie has been on Benin’s T List since 1996. We visited it in 2007 and had another chance to do so in 2012 when we revisited the country – but chose to revisit a non T List area as being more interesting!

Nevertheless most visitors to Benin are going to visit Ganvie. This town of c 20k people is situated on/in Lake Nokoue - a 20 x 11km lake which exits at its south side to the sea through Cotonou. Ganvie is on the north side, and the normal way of approaching is via the rather grotty town of Abomey Calavi (Virtually a suburb of Cotonou) to the west where small boats (romantically described as “pirogues”!) ferry inhabitants and tourists to/from the village.

After a few kms of open water, the boat enters an area of canals and “floating islands” – actually fully “tethered”, but constructed from piles, lake mud and vegetation. These are used for both the building of houses and agriculture. Many of the latter are under water for 4 or 5 months each year. There are a few dwellings in “original” form on stilts with wood and thatch, but a large number …