Marc cares for around 50 royal pythons in the temple - something his family has done for generations. OUIDAH, BENIN: MEET THE man who looks after a te
Marc cares for around 50 royal pythons in the temple - something his family has done for generations. OUIDAH, BENIN: MEET THE man who looks after a temple of over FIFTY pythons ? each let loose every night to bless the city?s inhabitants with a visit. In one image, the two-pound Royal python coiled around temple-keeper Marc?s face forming a living headdress. In another, a sleepy python rested inside the clay temple where tourists can pay to enter and visit the idolised creatures. Photographer Inger Vandyke (50) originally from Australia but who now lives in Clitheroe, UK, captured the incredible images in Ouidah, Benin. Inger spent several hours with one of the city?s python handlers who looks after around 50 of the four-foot-long creatures at the famed Temple Des Pythons. Local legend suggests that during a war in 1700s, the king of Ouidah sought refuge in a nearby forest where a group of pythons emerged to keep the king from being captured ? earning the snakes their ongoing respectability. / Inger Vandyke
Size: 3833px × 5749px
Photo credit: © Media Drum World / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: animal, drum, keeper, mdrum, mdrumf, mdw, mdwf, mdwfeatures, media, mediadrumworld., nature, python, religion, royal, snake, temple, tourism, tourist, travel, voodoo, voodooism, wildlife, world
