The Danakil Desert (or Afar Desert) is a desert in northeast Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and northwestern Djibouti. Situated in the Afar Triangle, it stretches across of arid terrain. It is inhabited by a few Afar, who engage in salt mining. The area is known for its volcanoes and extreme heat, with daytime temperatures surpassing . Less than of rainfall occurs each year.
|date = January 2013
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%; margin-top:0.5em;"
|+ Mean theoretical maximum sunshine hours
|-
! Mois !! Jan !! Feb !! Mar !! Apr !! May !! Jun !! Jul !! Aug !! Sep !! Oct !! Nov !! Dec !! Année
|-
| style="background:#e8e827" | Mean monthly sunshine hours
| style="background:#e8e827" | 310
| style="background:#e2e228" | 295
| style="background:#e8e827" | 310
| style="background:#ebeb28" | 320
| style="background:#f3f32a" | 350
| style="background:#f6f62b" | 360
| style="background:#f0f02a" | 335
| style="background:#f1f12a" | 340
| style="background:#efef29" | 330
| style="background:#eded29" | 325
| style="background:#e8e827" | 310
| style="background:#e7e728" | 305
| style="background:#fdfd2c" | 3 890
|}
Geology
thumb|Danakil landscape
Local geology is characterized by volcanic and tectonic activity, various climate cycles, and discontinuous erosion. The basic geological structure of this area was caused by the movement of tectonic plates as Africa moved away from Asia. Mountain chains formed and were eroded again during the Paleozoic. Inundations by the sea caused the formation of layers of sandstone, and limestone was deposited further offshore. As the land rose again, further sandstone formed above the limestone. Further tectonic shifts caused lava to pour out of cracks and cover the sedimentary deposits.
Human presence
thumb|Afar men in the Danakil Desert, circa 1862
In 1974, anthropologists discovered an Australopithecus afarensis fossil at Hadar, Ethiopia in the Awash Valley. The remains were found to be female and named Lucy.
The Afar people mine salt, loading each of their camels with up to thirty salt bricks weighing four kilograms each. It will then take two days to get to the nearest town, with guards watching the camels and guarding them from bandits. There is a project to flood the depression by carrying out a channel from the ocean. In the past, salt was used as a form of currency in the region, but now the miners use regular cash to conduct transactions.