Lake Abbe, Djibouti: The Steaming Chimneys & How to Visit

The chimneys are natural travertine (limestone) towers, built up over thousands of years where hot, mineral-rich geothermal fluid rose through the lakebed and mixed with the lake water, depositing calcium carbonate layer by layer. They are not scattered at random: they run in lines along the fault trends of the rift, and surveys count some 74 chimney alignments strung across roughly five kilometres of the eastern shore. Most stand anywhere from head height to 50 metres; the largest, a tower called As Bahalto, is put at around 60 metres tall and 90 metres across. Many still hiss and vent steam, especially in the cool of early morning, giving the plain the look of a seabed that has lost its sea, which is more or less what it is.

The basin is a terminal lake: the Awash River, having crossed most of Ethiopia, flows in here and simply evaporates, leaving its salt behind. Greater and lesser flamingos wade the shallows, and Afar herders move salt and livestock across the flats much as they have for centuries.

Lake Abbe sits on the Afar Triple Junction, the point where three tectonic plates, the Arabian, the Nubian and the Somali, are slowly pulling away from one another. The crust here is thin and stretched, magma sits close to the surface, and groundwater that seeps down comes back up hot. That is what feeds the bubbling springs, the sulphur-smelling fumaroles and the steam that curls off the chimney tops. On the north-west shore stands Dama Ali, a dormant volcano that watches over the flats. The lake itself has been shrinking within living memory, by 1984 it covered only about two-thirds of its 1940 area, so the salt plain around the chimney fields keeps growing.

The border between Ethiopia and Djibouti runs through the lake, with Ethiopia to the west and Djibouti to the east. In practice this matters little to a visitor: the chimney fields sit on the eastern, Djiboutian shore, and the only practical access is from the Djibouti side, via Dikhil. There is no established tourist route in from the Ethiopian side, so every visit, including ours, approaches from Djibouti City.

Lake Abbe rewards patience. The magic is at the edges of the day: sunset turns the chimneys amber, the desert night sky is extraordinary, and dawn brings the steam and the softest light. With five to six hours of driving each way, a day trip would spend most of its hours in the car and miss both sunset and dawn, so a night at the camp near the chimneys is the only real way to see it. Bring warm layers, desert nights are cold, a head-torch and a power bank. Our drivers leave camp before first light for a reason: the steam is thickest in the cool hour after dawn, and by mid-morning the heat has flattened it.

What the camp is like

The Afar-run camp near the chimneys is genuinely simple, and that is part of the experience. Expect a small cluster of traditional huts, each with cot beds, thin mattresses and mosquito nets; toilets and showers are shared. There is electricity, but only a few hours of solar power in the evening. It usually cuts out around 8 pm, which is why we tell guests to charge everything beforehand and carry a power bank. On hot nights, do what most of our guests end up doing: drag the cot outside and sleep under the stars. With no town anywhere near, the sky is as dark as it gets.

The tarmac runs from Djibouti City as far as Dikhil; after that you are on unmarked desert tracks through As Eyla and Kouta Bouyya, where phone map apps are little help. The off-road stretch alone takes two to three hours, and the full drive from Djibouti City is roughly five to six hours, so Lake Abbe needs a 4WD and a driver-guide who knows the tracks, this is not a road you find by following a screen. It is usually combined with Lake Assal into a single twin-lakes loop, and it is the centrepiece of our 4-Day Lake Assal & Lake Abbe Explorer, with the vehicle, driver-guide, permits and overnight camp all arranged.

Both greater and lesser flamingos live on the lake, alongside a shifting cast of migrant waterbirds that use the shallows. The best viewing is in the cool months from November to January, and specifically in the hour after sunrise, when hundreds feed close to the shore before lifting off as the sun climbs. Beyond the birds, do not expect a safari: the flats belong to Afar pastoralists and their goats and camels, and the flamingos are effectively the lake's only permanent wild residents. Time your dawn walk right and you get both spectacles at once, steam rising off the chimneys behind you, flamingos feeding in the shallows ahead.

Almost every article about Lake Abbe repeats the claim that the original 1968 Planet of the Apes was shot among the chimneys. It is a myth, a persistent one, passed from guidebook to blog to tour guide, and it is simply false. The film's desert scenes were shot around Lake Powell and Glen Canyon in northern Arizona, the ape village was built in Malibu Creek State Park, and the famous final beach scene was filmed at Westward Beach in Malibu, and when one traveller wrote to 20th Century Fox to check, the studio's answer was that none of the Apes films were made far from its own backlot. We mention it because the truth is the better story: Lake Abbe needs no borrowed film credit to justify the journey.

Come in the cool, dry season from November to February; the summer (June–August) is brutally hot on the Afar plain and best avoided. November to January also happens to be peak flamingo season, which settles the question. This guide is part of our complete Djibouti travel guide.

How do you get to Lake Abbe? By 4WD with a driver-guide, roughly five to six hours from Djibouti City, paved as far as Dikhil and then unmarked desert tracks, usually paired with Lake Assal on a twin-lakes loop.

Can you stay overnight at Lake Abbe? Yes. A simple Afar-run camp of traditional huts sits near the chimneys, cot beds, mosquito nets, shared bathrooms and a few hours of solar power in the evening. The overnight is the whole point: sunset, the night sky and the dawn steam.

How tall are the Lake Abbe chimneys? They are natural limestone (travertine) towers built where hot springs met the lake, reaching up to 50 metres; the largest, As Bahalto, stands around 60 metres tall and 90 metres across.

Was Planet of the Apes filmed at Lake Abbe? No, this is a persistent myth. The 1968 film was shot around Lake Powell and Glen Canyon in Arizona and at Malibu locations in California, every scene was shot in the United States, none in Djibouti.

Is there electricity at the Lake Abbe camp? A little. The camp runs on solar power for a few evening hours, usually until around 8 pm, so charge your devices before leaving Djibouti City and bring a power bank.

Is Lake Abbe worth visiting? Yes. It is one of the strangest landscapes on earth and Djibouti's signature sight, best combined with Lake Assal on a twin-lakes loop with a night at the chimney-side camp.