Welcome to hell: looks like the hottest job in the world
Work the salt mines in Ethiopia is not to be envied: they are forced to work at 50 degrees Celsius for an average cost of 6.5 dollars a day. This is the hottest job on earth.
Salt mines are in Avarskoy basin and extend over 155 thousand square kilometers. At the lowest point, they are more than 90 meters below sea level. Professional travel photographer and videographer Joel Santos went into this is truly a hot place to capture the severe beauty of this corner of the planet.
"I felt the need to tell the story of the salt miners. They work in the hottest place on earth and earn no more than 100-200 euros per month. The life of the local heavy. Probably one of the worst in the world," says the photographer.
The depression of Danakil, especially the area around the lake Afdera, is a place which produces nearly all the salt in Ethiopia. Every day about two thousand dromedaries and thousands of donkeys are here, carrying salt slabs to Berhala 80 kilometers from here.
Miners often work at temperatures below 50 degrees Celsius and begin work early in the morning to avoid peak heat, when the sun is at the Zenith.
"The air is so dry that in the desert nothing specific not smell. However, near some flooded areas you can feel the salty flavor, if you lean closer to the ground," — says the photographer.
"Most people don't know that in Ethiopia there is a depression. The severity of has its own unique beauty, and surprisingly, as aerial photographs reveal it with hitherto unknown parts, giving more scale to what the miners face every day," said Santos.
Annually it produces about 1.3 million tons of salt. Here there are 750 officially registered miners of salt.
Harsh landscapes include active volcanoes, foul-smelling sulfurous hot springs, black lava streams and studded with salt crystals water.
Once the salt blocks used in this area as currency, but now they were replaced by money as the rest of the world. Avarskoe local population has a strict monopoly on the depression of Danakil and jealously guards the salt. Each merchant before you pass must stop at the hut of the collector of the salt duties, and to pay for every camel, donkey and mule in your caravan.
"While I was shooting, I learned a lot. Especially when I had the pleasure to meet special people living in such extreme conditions. I had the opportunity to grow as a person and in another way to look at things," says the photographer.
Keywords: Heat | Salt | Temperature | Miners | Mines | Ethiopia