The Danakil Depression in
northern Ethiopia is one of
the lowest, hottest places on
the surface of the Earth. Yet
every year thousands of
traders from the Ethiopian
Highlands make the arduous
and exhausting journey into
this vast super-heated bowl,
their long camel trains tied
nose-to-tail with rough rope.
And what draws them into this
desolate, alien landscape is
salt. Blocks of it are cut
from the ground, loaded onto
the camels and transported
using methods unchanged for
at least 2000 years. Matthew
Parris joins the traders and
their camels to follow the
ancient salt route from the
Danakil Desert to the
Ethiopian Highlands.
