Cotonou: the gateway to the stilt village of Ganvié

Benin's main city, Cotonou remains the starting point to reach Ganvié, a village built entirely on stilts in the center of a lake.

Shared taxis and motorcycle taxis remain the most common way to get around.

The Dantokpa Grand Market, among West Africa's largest, sells textiles, voodoo fetishes, and foodstuffs along the river that runs through the city.

A few minutes by boat from the city, the lakeside village of Ganvié, built entirely on stilts in the sixteenth century to escape the slave trade, remains inhabited today by thousands of people.

Continuing along the coast, you visit the Gate of No Return at Ouidah, a monument commemorating the forced departure of enslaved Africans to the Americas.

As evening falls, Cotonou's beaches along the Gulf of Guinea offer a peaceful sunset before dinner.

The village of Ganvié was founded by the Tofinu people, who took refuge on the water to escape Fon slavers, who for religious reasons could not cross water to capture them.

With over twenty thousand inhabitants still living today on stilts, Ganvié is often described as the 'Venice of Africa,' the only large lacustrine settlement of its kind surviving on the continent.