Lac AbbéPersonal travel impressions in stories and pictures from Lac Abbé, Djibouti. Click on the pictures to enlarge, send as a free e-card, or download for personal use. You can locate Lac Abbé and navigate the world using Google Earth Show on map
N 11° 7.104
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Unfortunately, unreliability of several people caused us to leave late from Djibouti town. On the way to the south west, we crossed the two desert plains of Petit and Grand Barra, ancient lakes that have now become enormous dry plains. The drive further south of Dikhil was getting always more beautiful as we saw the sun sink behind the horizon, but we drove the last part of our way to Lac Abbé in darkness. The next morning, we were very eager to see the place we had arrived in. After a very early start, we waited in the plain off the shore of the lake for the sun to rise. When it did, we were amazed. As the sun was lifting the curtain over the landscape, enormous pointy shadows appeared all around us.
Black shadows pointing towards the sky, in which we could discern small clouds colouring grey, pink, and finally white. The black limestone chimneys coloured orange-brown as soon as the sun appeared, throwing long shadows over the eerie landscape and dwarfing us in the meantime. As we further explored the area, we realized that these chimneys were everywhere. We saw the hot water running freely from many sources, in small streams, towards the lake. Their steam gave an even more mysterious look to the landscape.
Actually, Lac Abbé is exactly on the spot where three tectonic plates meet, which explains some of the activity in this area. The chimneys area actually all born on fault lines, where the hot water from below has formed the 50 metre high pinnacles. Lac Abbé is Afar territory, and Abbé actually means rotten in the local language, describing the smell emitted by the chimneys. Walking among the chimneys is amazing, looking at the landscape from a distance gives you even more the impression of an otherworldly area. So much so, that the original Planet of the Apes movie was shot right at this location!
