Unforgiving temperatures beat down on these hardworking salt miners every single day. The salt mines, situated in the Afar triangle, stretch across 100,000 square kilometres and at their lowest point are more than 300 feet below sea level.
Professional travel photographer and videographer Joel Santos travelled to the area to capture the dry beauty of this brutal expanse of land.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the missing figures in the transcript.
This breath-taking drone footage of Ethiopia’s Danakil Salt Desert was captured by travel photographer Joel Santos. The desert’s huge salt crusts are often (1) ... meters thick. Each day around (2) ... camels and (3) ... donkeys pass through, transporting salt to a small local town.
It’s a hostile environment over (4) ... feet below sea level. Workers mining in the area toil in temperatures that often reach (5) ...°C. That’s (6) ...°F.
The surrounding landscape is one of volcanos, sulphur caked hot springs and black lava flows.
It’s one of the lowest, hottest places on Earth and definitely, one of the toughest places to work.
KEY:
1. 100
2. 2,000
3. 1,000
4. 300
5. 60
6. 140
