3 Days 2 Nights Danakil Depressions Tours
£ 650
Introduction
It's been called one of the most alien places on earth — a "gateway to hell" and, in the words of British explorer Wilfred Thesiger, a veritable "land of death."
The sulfurous hot springs, acid pools, steaming fissures and salt mountains of the Danakil Depression resemble scenes from a science fiction movie. But the area is very real — and it's one of Ethiopia's top attractions.
One of the hottest places on earth (by average daily temperature) as well as one of the lowest (over 400 feet below sea level), the Danakil Depression entices three main types of people to the area: salt miners, scientists and travelers.
As they have done for centuries, miners travel hours — often by camel caravans — to extract salt slabs from the flat pans around Lake Afar. Salt is the region's "white gold" and was a form of currency in Ethiopia until the 20th century.
Scientists are attracted to the conditions. In the 1960s, the area was used to study plate tectonics, but more recently astrobiological exploration is the larger scientific draw.
In the spring of 2016, researchers from the University of Bologna, Italy's International Research School of Planetary Sciences and Ethiopia's Mekelle University studied whether microbes can withstand Danakil's scorchingly inhospitable environment (it turned out they can). Scientists wonder whether if extremophiles, as they are known, can survive there, they can survive on Mars too.
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