LAKE ASSAL (Djibouti): The line of dromedaries shimmered in the dying evening heat as it followed a trade route used by the Afar nomads of the horn of Africa for hundreds of years.

In the distance, across a vast white plain 150 metres below sea-level, one of the lowest places on Earth, trucks and bulldozers, some of them corroded beyond repair, dot the horizon.

The geological marvel that is Lake Assal is Djibouti’s principal source of salt and has become a meeting point for ancient tradition and modern economics.

The “lake” consists of more than 50 square kms of salt deposits up to 600 metres thick and an extremely saline body of water of roughly the same area.

Since time immemorial, Afar nomads have brought their dromedaries to Assal, loaded them with salt and led them to Ethiopia, where their cargo is exchanged for cereal and other goods.

Hussein Mohammed, 35, made his first caravan journey, a round trip of some 500 kms, in 1993 after a stint in the army.

The caravan then climbed up the steep slope of one of the mountains enclosing the lake and continued for three days to market in Ethiopia, crossing an unmarked point on the frontier.

“The price of salt goes up and down, just like the Stock Exchange in Paris. If there are many caravans at the market, the buyers pay less,” said Mohammed.—AFP