Lying deep in the African desert sits the colourful and supersaturated hot springs of the world's 'hottest' town.

Surrounding the arid land, the depression is shadowed by two valcones, with Mount Erta Ale being active since the 1960s, still spewing out magma and boasting a crater lake of molten lava.

Bizarre scenes at the Erta Ale volcano in Afar, Ethiopia, in late December: a man wanted to light his cigarette. But without a lighter to hand, he resorted to a more unconventional method.

For three days a cloud of billowing ash dimmed the sun as the region's largest volcano, Erta Ale—"smoking mountain ... and a fiery lake of lava. The 2005 quakes and subsequent rattlings are ...