Djibouti

What looks like coral sand bordering the aquamarine water of Djibouti’s Lake Assal is in fact salt. The shallow lake is saltier than the Dead Sea and stings skin if going for a swim.

While salt comes as small grains and can flow, salt is not sand. Salt is soluble in water, sand is not.

Lake Assal is situated in the Danakil Desert, one of the hottest, driest, and lowest places on the planet.

Three of Earth’s tectonic plates pull the desert apart, creating an extreme landscape with acidic toxic lakes, a volcano crater below sea level, sulfur vapors, and odd geological formations.