In the Afar region of northern Ethiopia, lies a vast, tortured, desert plain called the Danakil Depression. Danakil lies about 410 ft (125 m) below sea level, and is one of the hottest and most inhospitable places on Earth— temperatures average 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.5 Celsius) but have been recorded above 122 Fahrenheit (50 Celsius). Numerous sulfur springs, volcanoes, geysers, acidic pools, vast salt pans, and colorful mineral-laden lakes dot the area, which formed above the divergence of three tectonic plates. Volcanic activity heats spring water, bringing sulfur and iron to the surface, leaving behind yellow, green, and orange deposits. For centuries, locals have been trekking in with camel caravans to mine the salt by hand, and in recent years, a few have been guiding tourists into the alien-looking landscape.
A camel caravan, carrying salt that was mined by hand, is led across a salt plain in the Danakil Depression on January 22, 2017, near Dallol, Ethiopia.#
Reddish waters of Lake Karum, or "Assale," fill a seasonally dry shallow area after flooding, due to a recent storm in the surrounding highlands, in the Danakil Desert.#
A camel caravan enters the salt mining area of the Danakil Depression on March 28, 2017. Every morning, hundreds of men converge on a dry lakebed in a remote corner of Ethiopia, where they cleave the ground open with hand axes to extract salt, just as their fathers and grandfathers once did.#
A camel caravan carries slabs of salt away from the Danakil Depression on April 22, 2013. The mineral is extracted and shaped into slabs, then loaded onto the animals before being transported back across the desert so that it can be sold around the country.#
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