Danakil

Dallol, is the "Hill of the Spirits" for the Afar people. Is a land of geysers, crystal formations and sulphurous springs. Dallol is located in the Danakil Depression in a remote area subject to the highest average temperatures on the planet. The term Dallol was coined by the Afar people and means dissolution or disintegration, describing a landscape made up of acid ponds.
In this picture my guide in the Dallol geothermal area, Alì, walking through the landscape. Alì Arata, 23 years old, lives in the near village Hamed Ela, and for 10 years he has been working as a guide accompanying travelers to Dallol and to the volcano Erta Ela.

A view of the volcano Erta Ale. Erta Ale is a continuously active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Region and is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. Erta Ale It is notable for holding the longest-existing lava lake, present since the early years of the twentieth century (1906). Volcanoes with lava lakes are very rare: there are only six in the world.

Ethiopia, Danakil. Assale, the Plain of Salt. A caravan of camels silhouetted on the horizon. The Plain of Salt extends itself from the north end of the Danakil Depression to the border with Eritrea. Here arrive, from the Ethiopian plateau, caravans of dromedaries and mules to load the slabs salt.
Located in the northern part of the Afar’s Triangle, which takes its name from the nomadic people who live there, the vast Danakil depression is the place where the constantly expanding of three tectonic plates join together.

Ali meets his friend Mohamed who works as a guide for tourists in the Danakil. They haven’t been seeing each other for a while and they began to shout and dance just out of joy.
That’s called the “Keké” dance. It’s a tradition of the Afar. A display of happiness: they were dancing and jumping on that very place.
Located in the northern part of the Afar’s Triangle, which takes its name from the nomadic people who live there, the vast Danakil depression is a land made of fire, salt and lava close to the Rift Valley.
It is from the retreat of the sea, evaporated twenty thousand years ago, that the Danakil has gained its peculiarity: to be a spread of evaporitic rocks that gives rise to the Great Plain of Salt - a desert which stretches for about 600 kilometers.

Village of Afrera. My guide Ibrahim (pictured right) who will accompany me to the volcano Erta Ale, during the hottest hours resting in a cafe. In the Afar Cafe's you can chew Khat. The Khat is a flowering plant native to the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Among communities from these areas, khat chewing has a history as a social custom dating back thousands of years. Khat contains a substances, which are said to cause excitement, loss of appetite and euphoria.

In this picture a group of Afar, travelling with a caravans of dromedaries.
The Danakil is a spread of evaporitic rocks that gives rise to the Great Plain of Salt - a desert which stretches for about 600 kilometers. A ghost ocean born from the retreat of the sea, evaporated twenty thousand years ago

The salt mines of Lake Assal, 116 m below sea level, an arid and scorching desert of rock salt. The cave where workers dig the salt looks like an ordered chaos. A burning hive of men, sweat and toil. The workers must arrive here at dawn, so they have left their poor beds to go on foot to break the desert into pieces. Salt is the only stone that you eat on planet Earth. In Ethiopia, it was used for years as a form of currency. In this image there is a portrait of Ahmed Jaber, 40 years old, 3 children, who lives in Hamed Ela and has been working in the Plain for 12 years. He manages to extract 100 salt tables per day.

Ethiopia, Danakil. The salt mines of Lake Assal, 116 m below sea level, an arid and scorching desert of rock salt in the eye, where from ages Afar and Tigray extract blocks of salt which are afterwards transported with caravans of dromedaries towards the Ethiopian plateau. The salt mines are animated by excavators at work and animals waiting for the load. The salt extracted is only the one present on the surface. Once a certain area is worn-out, all workers move to a new one.

Dallol. Military take visitors inside geological site. Close to the Eritrean border, the site is located in a politically unstable region and therefore it is required to be accompanied by an armed escort to be able to visit it.

An abandoned Afar village in the Waideddo Desert, on the road between Hamed Ela and the volcano Erta Ale.
In this vast plain, the Afars’ huts built with mud and twigs appear like a mirage. These nomads, who are mainly devoted to sheep farming and to the extraction of minerals, live in one of the most inhospitable places on earth, one of the hottest inhabited place in the world, with very little vegetation and temperatures that can reach 120° F degrees.

The caravans coming from the Salt Plain, arriving to Hamed Ela. Hamed Ela is the last Danakil-Ethiopian village before the border with Eritrea. It is the place where all those who are daily engaged in the work of extraction of salt live. Every single morning at dawn, workers and animals leave the village in order to reach the mining fields in the salt flat, and every night they all come back home to their families.

Village of Hamed Ela. A hut has become a hotel in which the passing-by workers can sleep on one of the typical stuffed beds. Hamed Ela is a seasonal village where the men who work in the cave live at least six months a year.

Volcano Erta Ale. A small settlement consisting of a few stone huts is the only outpost to the crater rim where you can spend the night. In this image there is Binyam, my local guide, sleeping on the doorway of my stone hut.

A view of the volcano Erta Ale. Erta Ale is a continuously active basaltic shield volcano in the Afar Region and is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. Erta Ale It is notable for holding the longest-existing lava lake, present since the early years of the twentieth century (1906). Volcanoes with lava lakes are very rare: there are only six in the world.