Mondo Knows Facts
Lake Assal is the lowest point in Africa
Its shore sits about 155 metres below sea level in a crater-like basin in Djibouti The lake has no outlet and loses water only to evaporation, which leaves it extremely salty. Salt has been cut from its shores for centuries and carried inland for trade. The surrounding basin is also one of the hottest places on the planet. It sits in Mondo's world geography collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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More facts like this
Lake Tanganyika is the longest freshwater lake in the worldStretching 673 kilometres through the East African Rift, Lake Tanganyika is shared by four nations.Lake Victoria is the largest tropical lake in the worldCovering nearly 60,000 square kilometres, Lake Victoria is shared by Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya.Lake Chad is astonishingly shallowThe whole lake averages only a metre or two deep, so its outline shifts dramatically with rainfallThe shores of the Dead Sea mark the lowest land elevation on EarthSitting at more than 430 metres below sea level, the Dead Sea surface is the lowest exposed land area on the planet.La Paz is the highest administrative capital city on EarthLa Paz in Bolivia sits in a high-altitude canyon at approximately 3,640 metres above sea level.The Maldives is the world's lowest-lying countryIts average land height is about 1.5 metres, and nothing natural rises much above 2.4 metres
🗺️ World Geographyfact 164 of 200
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Tags: lakes, africa, elevation
Lake Assal is the lowest point in Africa: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Its shore sits about 155 metres below sea level in a crater-like basin in Djibouti. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.