If I tell you about a place in the world where the lowest temperature throughout the year is 35 degrees Celsius with peaks of up to 63 degrees, lacking resources like water, with arid land where it's impossible to plant and where sand tornadoes form, you probably would think that life here is impossible. However, there's an ethnic group in Ethiopia, the Afar, who call this hell their home and live in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth. Join me in this video to discover the hottest place in the world inhabited by humans. Good morning, afternoon, or evening, I hope you're doing super well. Friends, there's a place on Earth where survival is nearly impossible, a place full of acidic springs, of salt, where the average temperature every day of the year is 41 degrees, where not a single day does the temperature drop below 35 degrees Celsius and it peaks at 63 degrees Celsius. We are in the Danakil Depression, the hottest place on Earth inhabited by humans, inhabited by the Afar. So today we'll see what life is like here, how these people survive in these arid, inhospitable lands, where not even a plant grows. It seems that whenever a motorcycle or someone comes by, everyone goes crazy. We're going to take a tour of the village. This is the largest settlement found in this Afar depression. It's like a village. The most interesting and striking thing is that they simply build houses with whatever they find. See how the houses have plastics, blankets, pieces of wood. With whatever they can, they build a house. Here they have no electricity, no water, virtually no basic services. The only thing there is a tower with which they have access to a signal. I see that most use a button cell phone which must have a satellite antenna or who knows. Because with that cell phone, I guess they can call if there's an emergency or something. But here the nearest airport is 8 hours away by car. And it's in a very small city where that's where they could fly to a major hospital if they need help. Let's get some first impressions of this place. Let's take a look at how the Afar's houses are structured and how this village is organized. The Afar have lived for thousands of years in this area. And as they were explaining to me, we're here with a friend who is Afar who is hosting us here. He hardly speaks English, but thanks to him, we can walk around his village peacefully. They are Afar and they tell me they live here happily because it's the land their ancestors passed down to them. It's not like they live here resenting living in scorching heat. For them, it's simply the land their parents inherited and it's the place they call home, this hell. I can't believe it, we even found khat here. The women, all that I've seen, dress this way. They're completely covered. I imagine it's partly because of religion since there are many Muslims in this area. Remember that Christians here in Ethiopia also cover themselves. But also, I imagine it's because of the sun, they go completely covered. And the men also all wear this cloth that covers them at the waist. You can see it here. Salam! I want to ask them myself, I'd like to hear from them, straight from their mouths if they really like this kind of life. So through Solomon who speaks Afar, since they have their own language, and also speaks English, we're going to ask. Can you ask them if they really like living here? I like living here! This is my homeland, that's why I like living here. Let's ask someone randomly. Because I'm truly amazed by this response. Can you ask them if they like living here? Yes. Yes. They like it because here they have everything. It's their homeland and they belong here. It's the land their family gave them. How incredible. The last thing I imagined was that these people lived here by choice. Anyone would think they simply live here because it's what they were dealt. Or because it's the only way they have to live. But no. They are nomads and could move to a cooler place, but they live here because it's their home. It's truly incredible how they simply carry on with their normal life in the village. It's like having arrived at any other village where people are outside, on chairs, hanging out... Only that in the middle of nowhere and in a place where the land is arid, as you can see. And you might wonder, how do they survive in this part of the world? What do they live off? How do they make money? What do they eat? Well, they are shepherds, they have many goats. In fact, the goats are not here in the village right now because they are somewhere far from here. Sometimes they walk 10 kilometers, sometimes 20 kilometers looking for places where the goats can eat or looking for water springs. That's how they get water to drink. They have to go wherever water can be found. In fact, on the way here about 10 kilometers from here, we found a... A small stream where there was a lot of people bathing, hauling with jerrycans for drinking and for their basic needs and also for the animals. And the other way to make money is in the salt mines. We'll see if it's possible later to see them. This is how they extract salt from the ground of this land where there are salt flats, they load it on donkeys or camels and sell it to make money and thus survive here. -What do you know about Costa Rica?
-A thing or two about Costa Rica... -Who?
-Navas. -Navas! Yes! You know Navas! Keylor Navas!
-Keylor Navas! Knows Keylor Navas from Costa Rica. -I remember him from the World Cup.
-Yes, in the World Cup! Hey, we made history guys! We made it all the way here! Well done, my friend! -What language do you speak in Costa Rica?
-Spanish! -Spanish!
-Spanish! -You and I are friends.
-Friends! -Do you know Álvaro Soler?
-Álvaro! I don't know what you're saying but yes. -Friends!
-Friends! -Thank you, my friend!
-Do you have a job now? -I'm a footballer.
-A footballer? -Yes! What's your name?
-Christopher. -Christopher.
-Yes! I'm a footballer now, friends. Nice to meet you, my friend. We're going to have to leave because things got very tense and it could escalate further, so we need to get out of here quickly. Thank you, my friend! Friends, we had to run out of there, even though some people were happy with the visit and welcomed us kindly, the leaders, the men, the leaders of the settlement, were not in agreement with bringing a camera to the place. So, they came to threaten us, they actually came to threaten my guide, because I don't speak their language. Someone even approached the driver's door with a weapon. We had to run out of there, but anyway, that's not the most shocking thing I was going to show you in this video. That was rather a stroke of luck to stop at the largest settlement the Afar have in this area that is the hottest in the world inhabited by humans. But now I'm going to show you the most shocking thing I've found about this topic, about these people who live in these temperatures, in this desert, in this hell. This is what really shocked me here in the Danakil Depression: even though the heat is suffocating, I don't know how many degrees we might be at now, maybe 40, the air is hot. We are currently in the middle of nowhere. We've driven about 3 hours away from that large settlement and see how there are small houses of people. Afar, we even met two friends who suddenly just appeared out of nowhere. They live here in houses made of stones, topped with sticks, straw, and whatever else they find, and there they live. It's too shocking. We're going to see if it's possible to meet some of them to go inside their houses and see how survival works here. Because here, yes, here they are far from water, far from everything. They gave us permission to film this little house which they tell me is traditional of the Afar. This is a real house. What you're seeing may seem surreal to me, but this is real. Look where we are, all this is volcanic stone, at some point here there must have been magma. All this is a volcanic area and in the middle of this desert is this little house that they tell us now the lady who lives here isn't here, so we can go in to see it inside. This is simply... What are they? Like braided palms. This is a sheet and look here inside. Inside there's only a type of carpet, also like braided palms. There's a blanket, I see a pot, I won't snoop through her things and I see here the kitchen area. Some stones, ashes, but that's all. These are all her possessions, all her belongings. If you see, the frame of the house is made of branches and is tied up with palm leaves too, with the palm leaf. I don't know if you can imagine what it's like to live here in the middle of this desert and in this hell, but I still can't process it. This type of house here is different, it's more modern. It's a house... Made with the same volcanic rocks that are around. As far as I can see, there's nothing sticking them together, it's not like they have cement, they simply stack one on top of the other until they have a wall built. And this is the door, it's a zinc sheet. Here we find, apparently camel dung, because they have many camels, in fact, on the way there were large groups of camels looking for food. And they tell me that the camels when they belong to these people don't leave, like they just roam around looking for food, but they always come back, they are like domestic camels. Camels are very important in the life of the Afar because they serve to transport what they extract from salt and also as food, they eat the camels. We're going to enter this other little house to see how different it is from the other one. This is the lock, this is what secures the door... This stone over here. We're going to lift the door and on this outside side from what I see it's a storage, rather, ow, I got pricked by a thorn from something. This is, see, in fact here is where they make this type of mats that I didn't know how to describe to you, but it's with this, it's made with palm. Yes, see, this is the palm leaf already dried, it's quite, quite hard and I imagine that with this they make this type of carpet or bed, which is what the girl there used to sleep on and they also use it on the roof and to build these traditional domes. We're going to see if this other side will then be the house. We were going to enter this one, but they tell us it has a padlock... See, this is the security, this one is secured, there's a padlock attached to this wood. Then a friend who appeared around here is going to take us to his house. It's incredible how there was no one and suddenly a lot of people have gathered. In fact, I want to show here behind him, the amount of people who have appeared when we stopped on the road. It's what I was telling you, they appear out of nowhere. Before we ran into where there were branches and such, a baby suddenly there running or playing. Truly, this is their normal and real life. Even from here smoke is coming out and something I notice just by getting close is that they have solar panels. With this they probably charge a cell phone and I also see a flashlight. Look, they also have sheep and we're going to pass. Here is a person, I imagine it's the father of the boy. Here they have a goat, they have a fire lit and that's all. The bed is this braided palm and nothing more. Truly incredible the life these people lead. I could never have imagined something like this. Also, something I've noticed is that they have sharpened teeth, they tell me that they do this either with a knife or with wooden sticks used for cleaning their teeth, they sharpen them because they eat a lot of meat, I imagine camel meat, goat meat, and it might even be needed for fighting, which is not the main case, but I'm told that someone with teeth like that is also feared in a fight. Also, all along the way, there are mounds of stones like this one. And this means that an Afar is buried here. As explained to me, when they bury them in this way with stone mounds it's because they did not die in a natural or normal manner, but were killed due to problems, revenge, things like that. Because they have two types of burials, the normal and ordinary one we know where a hole is dug and the body is placed there and this other one with these mounds of stones. This is like an Afar cemetery. Suddenly, we've been driving for hours on a lonely road and a small hut appears, a frame, and there lives a person. It's completely incredible. For example, here we find a settlement apparently abandoned because there are no beds, nor do we see ashes or fireplaces, but also here we can see how they simply use this in a provisional manner. They just settle here for a while, and if they need to move, probably in search of water, maybe the water source that was nearby dried up, then they just leave it and go, build a settlement elsewhere. Here, as far as I can see, these two young men are walking, maybe they are from the people who lived around here, but as I see, the majority of huts are already abandoned. I see that some had their roofs removed, some had the plastics and wood and everything they had on top taken away. Maybe those materials are a bit harder to come by, but the stone obviously stays here. This is also very characteristic of the Afar and that is the majority are armed as they have to move around. Salam! we don't want to get into trouble... As they have to move from one place to another, they always go armed. This is one of the main economic activities of the Afar and it's the salt mines. What they have here is a salt lake, it's saltier than the sea. You can come here, get in, and float. In fact, I was going to get in, but the water is warm. Imagine right now at 40 degrees, the last thing I want is to get into hot water. Also, you could die of dehydration from the salt, the heat, the desert, and everything else. Imagine that the Afar are so nomadic and settle anywhere that in these small shacks, which are the water pump shacks, people live inside. Now it's likely that someone is living inside there and they stay close by because here behind we have the salt. It turns out these pumps, which are from private companies, extract the salt from the lake and put it here in pools. And company workers come and also people at night who steal the salt that is extracted. So, we're going to go see the salt piles that sustain the economy of the Afar. This is how the salt looks after drying in the sun. They come and work during the night because during the day it's impossible. At the same time, people who are not workers come and take their little bits of salt also to sell and survive. And this is the simplest way. This is the salt, they have to extract it and take it to another factory where it will be processed and sold all over Ethiopia. But this is the simplest way to obtain the salt. Because deeper inside, there are salt flats where they have to go work, nothing is prepared. It's just a completely natural salt flat. They have to go there, extract the salt, load it onto camels and take it to sell either to a company for processing. Or extract another type of salt that's easier for them to process and sell for consumption. This is how they sustain themselves in the desert. They sell small items, sell a goat, sell a camel, sell salt. They get a bit of money and go buy the basics in the nearest city. That sometimes it can be 20 kilometers away, for example, in this particular place it's about 20 kilometers. Or sometimes it can be 50 kilometers. Sometimes they have to ride their camels because otherwise the distances are impossible to cover on foot. Because remember that unlike the tribes, many of which don't need anything that we are used to consuming, They don't have anywhere to plant, they have no fruits to pick, no vegetables to sow. So they do depend on certain foods that are sold here in the area. And on the meat of camels and goats. This is the closest large city for many of the communities or many of the people who live alone out there on the road. It can be 30, 40, 50 kilometers from some of them. Here they build differently, they still build a house with all kinds of materials but at least here they use zinc sheets. They have more access to those kinds of things and it greatly catches my attention, I'm not going to get closer to avoid getting into trouble because besides being a bit complicated with cameras, Religion even more so. But look at how a huge mosque is being built there in the background out of concrete. A large structure amid all these houses, built as we have been seeing them. With a bit of sticks, a bit of wood, and sheets. It's incredible. Well, my friends, finally here ends today's stunning video. This is one of the most shocking ways of life I have come across. Tell me what you think about it. People living in the middle of nowhere in the desert without access to anything. Just there they build their little shack and go live in it. Moreover, in the hottest area of the earth inhabited by human beings. Incredible especially that they like it, they don't move from there because it is the land they call their home. There they make their village. There they gather to chill, to talk. I don't know, honestly, I'm speechless... I want to know what you think. Don't forget to subscribe, share this video if you liked it. Give it a lot of love if you like this type of content because getting here takes all kinds of efforts. Pure life and see you in the next video. Kisses from someone who today saw one of the most shocking things in terms of ways of living. regarding ways of living.
