Ethiopia is a country of staggering diversity. Two hundred miles south of one of the world’s hottest deserts, the Danakil Depression—116 m (380') below sea level—mountains up to 4,500 m (15,000') often bear snow within 10 degrees of the equator. The geography is dominated by a massive knot of mountains and plateaux of still-active volcanic origin, heavily dissected by river valleys up to a mile deep and separated into eastern and western highlands by the Great Rift Valley, which to the north of Ethiopia becomes the Red Sea.
