Lake Assal, Djibouti: Africa’s Lowest Point & How to Visit

Lake Assal sits in the Afar Depression, the sunken corner of the Great Rift Valley where three tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart. It is often labelled a crater lake, but the deeper story is tectonic: the basin fills a trough in the Asal Rift, ground that is being stretched thinner and lower every century. At 155 metres below sea level, only the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee lie deeper anywhere on land.

The lake has no outlet, and, the detail our guests find hardest to believe, no river or stream flows into it either. Its water arrives underground. Seawater from the Ghoubbet-el-Kharab, the inner bay of the Gulf of Tadjoura about ten kilometres to the south-east, percolates through fissured volcanic rock and rises into the lake through subsurface springs, at an estimated 5,000 to 8,000 litres every second. The Afar heat then evaporates it and leaves the salt behind. Run that cycle for a few thousand years and you get today's shoreline: a crust of white crystal so firm you can walk far out across it.

The water averages around 34.8 per cent salt, rising to roughly 40 per cent at depth, about ten times the salinity of the ocean, and even saltier than the surface waters of the Dead Sea. Wade in and it feels faintly oily on the skin; lie back and it holds you up like a deckchair.

One correction worth making, because many websites repeat it: Lake Assal is often called the world's second-saltiest lake, after Antarctica's Don Juan Pond. That claim does not hold up. Gaet'ale Pond, a small volcanic spring in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression, the same rift system, one border over, is saltier than both. Since we run journeys on both sides of that border, we would rather get it right: Assal is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth, and by far the grandest of this rift's hypersaline lakes. That is remarkable enough without inflating it.

The salt here is not just scenery. The crystallised bank around the lake is estimated at some 300 million tonnes, one of the largest salt reserves in the world, reaching tens of metres deep. Salt has been taken from these shores for centuries, and in modern times the harvest turned industrial: semi-commercial extraction began in 1988, concessions were awarded in 2002, and annual output has reached around 110,000 tonnes, most of it trucked to Ethiopia, where Assal salt has long been known as white gold. Djibouti has since proposed the Lake Assal zone, including the Ardoukoba volcano, to UNESCO for World Heritage listing.

Many guides, including an earlier version of this one, say that camel caravans still carry Assal salt towards the Ethiopian highlands. We will be straight with you: the great camel caravans have all but disappeared, replaced by lorries and industrial works, and you are unlikely to see one. What genuinely continues is the trade at its human scale. Afar workers still cut slabs of salt by hand at the lake edge, and Afar sellers keep small stalls on the shore with salt crystals and salt-crusted curiosities. Buying a piece from them is the customary way to put something back into the community, and a more honest souvenir than the caravan photograph the brochures promise.

Half the reason to go is the road itself, and our drivers treat two stops along it as part of the destination.

The first is the viewpoint over the Ghoubbet-el-Kharab, the near-enclosed inner bay of the Gulf of Tadjoura, the same bay that secretly feeds the lake from below. Its name translates roughly as the gulf of demons, and it is widely known as the Devil's Cauldron: Afar legend holds that spirits haunt its waters, cliffs fall some 600 metres to the sea, and fierce currents tear through the narrow mouth past the two Devil's Islands. Even without the folklore, the view is worth the stop.

The second is Ardoukoba, a low fissure volcano whose vents lie directly between the bay and the lake. It erupted in November 1978, after roughly 3,000 years of dormancy and a swarm of earthquakes, sending lava towards both the Ghoubbet and Lake Assal. The road crosses its black lava fields, and you can stand on rock younger than many of our guests, one of very few places on Earth where a mid-ocean rift runs across dry land.

One common mix-up: the Grand Bara desert is not on this road. It lies on the southern route towards Dikhil and Lake Abbe, so you will cross it on the Abbe leg of a twin-lakes loop, not on the way to Assal.

You can walk out onto the salt crust, float in the brine and feel the heat radiate off the flats. A few practical notes: there is no shade and it gets extremely hot, so go in the cool season and carry plenty of water and strong sun protection. Keep the salt out of your eyes and off any cuts. It stings, and a freshwater rinse afterwards is essential, the brine dries to a white crust on your skin within minutes, which is why our drivers carry jerry cans of fresh water in the 4WD.

There is no ticket office at the lakeshore and access is normally open, though it is worth carrying a few small notes for the Afar sellers on the shore; your guide will settle any local charge on the day. Give yourself a full hour: the best photographs come from low down, where the salt polygons lead the eye to the turquoise.

Lake Assal is about 120 km and two hours from Djibouti City by 4WD with a driver-guide, and, unusually for this region, the road is sealed essentially the whole way, which makes it the easy half of a Djibouti itinerary. Most visitors combine it with Lake Abbe, which does demand a long stretch of rough track, into a twin-lakes loop, the shape of our 4-Day Lake Assal & Lake Abbe Explorer. Come in the cool, dry season from November to February. This guide is part of our complete Djibouti travel guide.

How low is Lake Assal? It lies 155 metres below sea level, the lowest point in Africa and the third-lowest point on land on Earth, after the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.

Can you float in Lake Assal? Yes. It is around ten times saltier than the ocean, so the water is dense enough to float you easily, just keep it out of your eyes and any cuts.

Is Lake Assal the saltiest lake in the world? No, though it is often wrongly ranked second. At roughly 34.8 per cent salinity it is one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth, but Gaet'ale Pond in Ethiopia's Danakil Depression is saltier still.

How far is Lake Assal from Djibouti City? About 120 kilometres, or two hours, by 4WD with a guide, on a paved road almost the entire way; it is usually paired with Lake Abbe.

Can you still see camel salt caravans at Lake Assal? Rarely. The camel caravans have largely been replaced by truck transport, but Afar workers still harvest salt by hand and sell salt crystals at the lakeshore.

Is Lake Assal worth visiting? Yes, the white-salt, black-lava and turquoise contrast is unlike anywhere else, the drive passes the Devil's Cauldron and the 1978 Ardoukoba lava fields, and the Afar salt workers keep it a living landscape, not just a view.