The Danakil Depression is found in the Danakil Desert, along the borders of Eritrea and Djibouti. With average temperatures of 35°C – there are days when temperatures exceed 48°C – and an average annual rainfall of between 100 and 200 millimetres, it is rightly considered one of the most inhospitable places on earth. The National Geographic went so far as to call it the cruellest.

Situated at the head of the African Rift Valley, in the Afar Triangle, on the so-called triple point, the Danakil Depression constitutes one of the lowest places on earth; it’s 100 below sea level depression, the direct result of the retreating actions of the Arabian and (two halves of) the African plate. Located thus, the area is especially volatile.

The earth’s crust here is especially thin, the resultant volcanic activity the explanation for the depression’s extraordinary landscape – cones, shields, lava, geysers and salt pans.