This extraordinary Mexican Airbnb listing lets you sleep in the belly of a serpent.

El Nido de Quetzalcoatl, or Quetzalcoatl’s Nest, is a sculpture garden just north of Mexico City, conceived by architect Javier Senosiain. Like his fellow countryman, Luis Barragán, Senosiain uses light, shade, colour and form as guiding features of his work, while taking cues from Organic Architecture to blend his structures with their environments and the topography of the land.

‘Man shouldn’t attack nature but rather should live in harmony with it,’ Senosiain told journalist Isabel Garcia Muñoz in a 2014 interview.

The ravine of 5,000 sqm in which Quetzalcoatl’s Nest sits is rugged and irregular – a challenge but also an influence for Senosiain when building the structure in 1998. He saw an animal-like form in the mouth of the last remaining cave, which inspired the snake’s head. There now appeared to be a serpent slithering through the land, so he added a tail and from there a ferro-concrete technique was used to build the body of the serpent and 10 apartments within it.

For £170 a night, eight people can stay at this Mexican holiday home, sleeping inside the snake and having full access to the garden and the sculptures. The park recently announced that it will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future so Airbnb guests and residents will truly have the place to themselves.

It might be far from Mexico City’s top attractions, but a stay here is like taking a trip to a fairy tale land.

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