This salt lake is located in Africa’s Great Rift Valley, close to the cradle of humanity, at an altitude of 600m. Once filled with abundant fresh water, it has evaporated over the millennia, and when temperatures rise, millions of pink flamingos come to rest on its red and yellow salt crusts. But falling rainfall and increased evaporation could dry up the lake for good.

At the foot of the Ol Doinyo Lengaï volcano in Tanzania lies a fascinating multicolored lake, but it’s also one of the most corrosive and dangerous on the planet. Virtually no form of life is possible in its waters. Even if, on the surface, East African Lesser Flamingos have made it their refuge.

As Tanzania is a country with very high temperatures, the lake dries out during the hottest season. It is during this period that salt-hungry micro-organisms develop, giving the lake its red color, as is the case for most of the world’s pink lakes and ponds: Salt Lake, the Camargue marshes, Lac Rose in Senegal, the San Francisco salt marshes…

This African lake is named after a mixture used by the ancient Egyptians for mummification. Natroun, in their language, is a natural alloy of soda ash (from the volcano) and sodium bicarbonate linked to salinity. As a result, it’s probably the calmest lake in Africa.

Few animals venture near it, as those who do have the bad idea of venturing near its waters end up calcified. In concrete terms, the chemical elements in this water transform bodies into stone. Photos of birds frozen in the salt have made the rounds of the web, as this lake is extremely alkaline, and its temperature can rise to 60 degrees. Photographer Nick Brandt’s work immortalized the frozen bodies of animals washed up by the lake.

Although the Masai live from livestock farming nearby, practicing semi-nomadism on the shores of the lake, there are no major towns in the region.

However, the lake’s equilibrium is threatened by deforestation and the construction of a hydroelectric plant on the Ewaso Ng’iro river. What’s more, current global warming threatens to dry it out permanently as a result of reduced rainfall and excessive evaporation.

The Natron Basin site, which includes the lake, was designated a Ramsar site on July 4, 2001 for its unique environment and fauna, but it is likely that before the end of the century it will be nothing more than a desert of soda ash, cracked salt and dust.