The overwhelmingly beautiful and heart-consuming place in the face of the earth—Danakil has been regarded to be the cruelest and rudest place on the face of the earth because of its inhospitable geographic climatic conditions, however, staggeringly this place is actually a home to the natives—to the Afar people.
Regardless of the harsh natural conditions they pass through, the Afar people have made Danakil their “home sweet home” for thousands of years now.
Through the Ethiopian highlands, a hundred and twenty kilometers to the edge of the Ethiopian and Eritrean border there is a true similitude to what hell can possibly be like, if hell is a reality—the Danakil depression would certainly be a vivid visualization of it. Being part of the great east African rift valley Danakil falls a hundred and twenty-five meters below sea level, making it one of the lowest places on earth. The Danakil depression is the northern part of the Afar triangle and it is caused by the Afar triple junction: where three tectonic plates meet.
Danakil is peerless in its colorful physical features—it is unlike elsewhere on earth. It is as if the grand hands of nature itself took the liberty in beautifying Danakil and empowering it with the toughest climate on earth, which apparently makes Danakil the most inhospitable place on earth.
Danakil depression is the starting point for the great caravans of camels on their way to the Dallol salt mines, which is sited in the hub of the Danakil desert.
THE STOUT AFAR PEOPLE
The mind-bogglingly fit and robust occupants of the Danakil depression are the legendary itinerant warrior tribe.
Each member of the community, from the little ones to the oldest, must contribute something because survival depends on working tunefully in Dallol.
The Afar people live in movable wooden huts and their prime survival means is by breeding livestock. To the Afar people, the salt mines are like money. Carving out the salt mines, the Afar people will change the salts into money, but to do that one must be tremendously fit to withstand the wind fire, the hunger and the thirst. One must make trip that would take weeks of traveling to sell the carved salt.
With a very friendly personality, one would see that the Afar people are a fitting resemblance of true strength and pensiveness.
DALLOL — SPLENDOR TO BEHOLD
Dallol is a place found in the heart of the Danakil depression. From the inception of the dawn until the coming of the dusk Dallol is just simply indescribably beautiful.
The extremity of the beauty of Dallol made it very dangerous. But how? Well, Dallol is blessed with pools of concentrated acid, acids like sulfuric acid and other dangerous acids. Dallol also has ridges of crystals making the surface look as if it was intentionally bedecked for the merriment of people’s hearts and sights.