Danakil is a region in the north of the country, shared with Eritrea, which extends to the Red Sea. Here lies a depression that reaches 116 metres below sea level. The area is considered to be the most inhospitable on earth, dotted with volcanoes, salt lakes and sulphurous expanses, with temperatures as high as 50 degrees in the spring months, and inhabited by the Afar people, once the fiercest and most violent in Ethiopia.
This is one of the most challenging circuits in the country, but also one of the most scenic. The scenery, which can only be reached by off-road and well-equipped vehicles, offers visions that vary from lunar atmospheres to scenes similar to Dante’s circles, among the most incredible imaginable.
The Erta Ale volcano, which has been erupting since 1967, can be climbed on foot at night or by camel, because it is in the darkness that it is at its best. It is a permanent, incandescent sea of lava, unlike anything on earth. (Unfortunately, the main caldera closed in 2019).
Some 20 kilometres from the village of Ahmedela, where the asphalt road ends, lies the Dallol desert, the lowest and hottest point in Africa, at -116 metres below sea level. This area, characterised by yellow sulphurous expanses, salt lakes, fairy chimneys and geysers, is the source of most of Danakil’s salt, which is still extracted by hand.
To the south of the Erta Ale volcano lies Lake Afera, 102 metres below sea level, traditionally inhabited by Afar nomads, who used to kill and castrate the chiefs of rival tribes.
Today, they are a strongly Islamised people who have preserved their traditions and their original trade, namely the extraction and trade of salt, which they still transport hundreds of kilometres by camel along the ancient salt route. They are perhaps among the last salt caravans still active in the whole of Africa.
