Epilogue -Highlands to Lowlands, 2015

Leaving the outskirts of Addis Ababa, we headed for Kombolcha through a mountain pass with a viewpoint ("Menelik's window") of the Great Rift Valley. Kombolcha is located at an altitude of 1502 meters, a little lower than the Abyssinian Plateau, and is covered with green trees and grass, rural villages, and rich rivers. At an open-air market (Sembete Market) held in the suburbs, beans, grains, goats, cattle, camels, and miscellaneous goods were sold in abundance. The children's faces were peaceful, showing no signs of suffering from a lack of food. Heading east from Kombolcha along the road, we reached Bati (Oromia region, Amhara State), where a Sunday market is held. From Bati to Semara, we entered Afar State. The altitude dropped, and by the time we reached Semera, located at about 400 meters above sea level, the forest green had disappeared from the car window. A scorching hot desert area with swirling dust spread out.

Epilogue
- Highlands to Lowlands​​​​​​​
Leaving the outskirts of Addis Ababa, we headed for Kombolcha through a mountain pass with a viewpoint ("Menelik's window") of the Great Rift Valley. Kombolcha is located at an altitude of 1502 meters, a little lower than the Abyssinian Plateau, and is covered with green trees and grass, rural villages, and rich rivers. At an open-air market (Sembete Market) held in the suburbs, beans, grains, goats, cattle, camels, and miscellaneous goods were sold in abundance. The children's faces were peaceful, showing no signs of suffering from a lack of food.

Heading east from Kombolcha along the road, we reached Bati (Oromia region, Amhara State), where a Sunday market is held. From Bati to Semera, we entered Afar State. The altitude dropped, and by the time we reached Semera, located at about 400 meters above sea level, the forest green had disappeared from the car window. A scorching hot desert area with swirling dust spread out.
A viewpoint ("Menelik's window") of the Great Rift Valley.
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Accidental vehicle on the pass

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Colletion> 
Title:  To Afar Triangle in Ethiopia: one of the harshest places on Earth

A new adventure has begun; to meet the harshest nature on earth; to meet the lives of Ethiopian peoples living in the harshest places.


In 1974, several hundred pieces of fossilized human bones more than 3 million years old were found near the village of Hadar, Ethiopia, and it was found to be a female skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis, and she was named "Lucy".  

The broad-leaved forests that provided fruits: Lucy's main foods, had decreased drastically with the advent of the Sahara Desert and the Great Rift Valley, which began forming about 10 million years ago; it was necessary to descend to the ground and move between the trees to obtain the fruits.

The Afar Triangle, or Afar Depression(as known as the Danakil Desert), located in northeastern Ethiopia, was said to be one of the harshest places on earth and was formed by the Great Rift Valley.  In the Danakil Desert, the lowest elevation is below -100m above sea level and the dry season temperature is close to 50°C; surprisingly, this is the place where the Afar peoples live, besides, this place is a region with extremely active uplift: the volcano Dallol, which has the crater in the lowest place in the world on land: the volcano Elta Are, which has a low-viscosity lava lake.
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