Danakil (hollow)

Danakil (Afar ^[1] , Dallol ^[2] ) is a depression in the northern part of the Afar depression on the border of Ethiopia ( Afar region) and Eritrea , part of the desert of the same name .

Danakil
Location
Country	Ethiopia Eritrea
Danakil

The hollow of Danakil is the hottest place on Earth, given the temperature is not “record high”, but “average high” throughout the year. For example, in the winter morning the air temperature can reach 37 ° С ^[3] . The maximum temperature (not in the shade) is 63 ° C, during the summer the temperature never drops below 40 ° C, during the year it falls below 34 ° C ^[2] . It does not rain here most of the year ^[1] .

The American paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson and his colleagues, who in 1974 found here the remains of an Afralopithecus Afarian named Lucy , consider the Danakil depression to be the ancestral home of hominids ^[1] .

It is one of ^[4] : it is located 125 meters below sea level and ranks third in the list of the lowest places in Africa , second only to Lake Assal (−153 meters) and the hollow of Cattara (−133 meters) .

On the territory of the depression there are the sleeping volcano Ayalu (2145 meters), dormant Dallol (−48 meters), which gave rise to a number of sulfur sources ^[3] ; and the current Erta Ale (613 meters), as well as the mouth of the Avash River, which in dry years dries up and crumbles into a chain of saline lakes, not reaching the Indian Ocean ^[5] . There are few semi-abandoned settlements, for example, Dallol .

Despite the considerable distance from civilization, the lack of roads and airports nearby, the Danakil Basin is a tourist attraction ^[1] .

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  Ayalu volcano

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  Activity of lava lake of Erta Ale volcano

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  One of the sulfur sources of the Dallol volcano

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  Salt lake with geysers near Dallol volcano

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  Salt canyons

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  Presumably, that was what Lucy looked like, living in the area of ​​the Danakil depression 3.2 million years ago.