What exactly is a python variable?

[Veek M]

In C:
int x = 10; 
results in storage being allocated and type and location are fixed for 
the life of the program. 

In Python,
x = 10

causes an object '10' to be created but how exactly is 'x' handled? 
Symbol Table lookup at compile time? Is every 'x' being substituted out 
of existence? Because type(x) gives 'int' so..