Lake Assal — lake
Mheidegger · CC BY 4.0

Lake Assal

  • Elevation-153 m
  • 2 min read
  • 11.650° N 42.417° E

Interesting facts

  • Its Arabic name, Buḥayrah ʿAsal, means "Honey Lake", an ironic label for one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth.
  • The water holds about 35 percent salt on average, rising to around 40 percent at a depth of 20 metres, more than the Dead Sea.
  • Families wade into the lake to gather spheres of crystallised salt, which are sorted by size by hand and sold as Djibouti salt pearls.
  • In November 1978 a fissure opened about 3 km from the lake and, after 3,000 years of quiet, gave birth to the Ardoukoba volcano within a week.
  • That eruption poured out about 12 million cubic metres of fluid basalt lava, with flows running across the rift floor towards Lake Assal.
  • In 1893 France granted the businessman Léon Chefneux a 50-year exclusive right to refine and export the lake's salt.
  • Sun and wind evaporate an estimated 460 million cubic metres of water a year, balanced by seawater seeping in through the rock.
  • Scientists study the lake as a model for the hot, dense brines on the floor of the Red Sea, which this rift is expected to join one day.
  • Apart from abundant bacteria, the lake supports no aquatic life, and a single palm tree stands by the road along its shore.

Why it is worth it

Lake Assal lies in a scorching basin in central Djibouti, 155 metres below sea level — the lowest point on land in Africa and the third-lowest on Earth after the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee. Its water shifts colour through the day, glowing emerald at midday against a snow-white shore of crystallised salt and the dark volcanic rock beyond.

The lake is a product of the Afar Triangle, where the African and Arabian plates are pulling apart and the Great Rift Valley meets the sea. The ground around it is made of volcanic basalt between about 3.4 and 1 million years old. Lake Assal has no river feeding it; instead, sea water from the Ghoubbet-el-Kharab, an inlet of the Gulf of Tadjoura some 10 km to the south-east, seeps through the fractured rock and rises in hot springs at a rate estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 litres per second. In this furnace, where summer temperatures reach around 52 °C, evaporation is relentless, and the water carries about ten times the salinity of the sea, making it one of the saltiest bodies of water in the world.

The liquid lake is about 19 km long and 6.5 km wide, covering some 54 km², with a maximum depth of more than 40 metres. Beyond it a salt pan of about 68 km² stretches away on the west and north-west side, holding an estimated 300 million tonnes of salt. Salt cut here by the Afar gave rise to ancient caravan routes linking the lake with the Ethiopian highlands, where it was bartered for sorghum and other goods; commercial extraction grew sharply in the 2000s. The lake is a protected zone under Djibouti's national environmental action plan of 2000.

Getting there

Lake Assal lies about 120 km west of Djibouti City. The nearest town of any size is Arta, about 49 km away in a straight line. The nearest airport is Djibouti–Ambouli International Airport (JIB), about 82 km away in a straight line.

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From the encyclopaedia

Lake Assal is a crater lake in central-western Djibouti. It is located at the western end of Gulf of Tadjoura between Arta Region, and Tadjoura Region, touching Dikhil Region, at the top of the Great Rift Valley, some 120 km (75 mi) west of Djibouti city. Lake Assal is a saline lake that lies 155 m (509 ft) below sea level in the Afar Triangle, making it the lowest point on land in Africa and the third-lowest point on Earth after the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. No outflow occurs from the lake, and due to high evaporation, the salinity level of its waters is 10 times that of the sea, making it the fifth most saline body of water in the world, behind Garabogazköl, Lake Retba, Gaet'ale Pond and Lake Elton. The salt in the lake is exploited under four concessions awarded in 2002 at the southeast end of the lake; the major share of production is held by Société d’Exploitation du Lac and Société d’Exploitation du Salt Investment S.A de Djibouti.

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