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Eastern Danakil Depression

Eastern Danakil Depression
28
Apr 2025
Admin | Tours & Travel

Eastern Danakil Depression

In the northeastern part of Ethiopia at the occasion of the red sea and the Gulf of Eden lies a region known as the Afar triangle; is a wild and rocky place featured by below sea level deserts, soaring bluffs, cracks, active and dormant volcanoes, salt lakes and craters. This Triangle in Ethiopia keeps one of the lowest points in Africa, the Danakil depression. The Awash River is the main water flow into the region. It starts it life from the highlands on the west and runs dry during the annual dry season, and ends as a chain of saline lakes in the east at Afar.

Things to do
  • Established at the occasion of three tectonic plates, the Danakil is one of the world’s lowest-lying places, set mostly below sea level, and it officially ranks as the hottest inhabited place on earth, with an average daily maximum of 45°C. However, the high level of tectonic activity means that more than 30 active volcanoes protrude from this stretch Great Rift Valley floor. These include the iconic Erta Ale, which has hosted a permanent lava flow since the late 19th century, and the Dallol Crater with its sulfurous pools enclosed by strange pastel-hued crystalline formations.
  • The Danakil’s top attraction is Erta Ale, a 613m-high shield volcano whose caldera of crumbling black rock contains the world’s oldest permanent lava lake. Bubbling at temperatures of more than 1,000˚C, this ellipsoid cauldron of black-and-red magma is a truly mesmerizing phenomenon, as violent red fountains of molten rock spurt tens of meters in the sky, accompanied by nose-searing waves of ammonia gas. Accessible only on foot or by camelback, Erta Ale is reached along a gradually sloping 10km path through shade less terrain that can be treacherously hot in full daylight. It is conventional to ascend in the late afternoon to avoid the midday heat, then sleep at the top and return to the base early the next morning.
  • Set in a flat-sided shallow explosion crater, the Dallol Springs comprises a field of multicolored geysers that bubble over into a series of steaming sulfurous pools dotted with conical yellow-green vents and crystalline formations of red, orange, and white. It is especially beautiful in the early morning and late afternoon, which is also when the temperature is most bearable.
  • Once a bay in the Red Sea, the hyper-saline Lake As Ale lies at the heart of a 1,200km2 expanse of salt-encrusted flats that have been mined by the local Afar for millennia. Even today, visitors might come to cross dozens of Afar miners chipping at the salt flat’s crumbly off-white crust to extract neat 30cm x 40cm amole salt bars. The salt is then transported by camel to the highlands by caravaneers from Tigray.
  • Set at 103m below sea level, the lovely emerald-hued Lake Afdera laps the shore of what is regarded to be the world’s lowest-lying island. Now accessible on an asphalt road that runs through the village of Afdera, the lake is an important source of salt, which is obtained from artificial evaporation pools along the western shore. You can swim or camp at a set of freshwater hot springs on the west shore close to Afdera village.

Annual Festival

Marriage and musim festivals are famous in Afar

Accommodations

A selection of hotels can be found in Semera. Basic shelter in a small town of Logia and Afdera. No formal accommodation exists once in the Danakil, though basic camping shelters are available at Hamed Ela, Do Dom and the Erta Ale crater rim

Other Things To Do

Explore the bizarre landscape of salt canyons, witness the volcanic activity of Erta Ale volcano, and see the salt extraction process, all while experiencing the otherworldly beauty of Dallol with its geothermal pools and salt domes.

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