Unforgiving temperatures of up to 60℃ (140℉) beat down on these saltminers on a daily basis. The mines, situated in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia, stretch across 38,000 sq miles and at their lowest point are more than 300ft below sea level. Joel Santos travelled to capture the area’s dry, brutal beauty. Here: Dromedaries and donkeys are used to transport the salt. (Photo by Joel Santos/Barcroft Images)

Iraqi Shiite fighters from the Hashed al- Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) paramilitaries hold a position near the village of Tal Abtah, south of Tal Afar, on November 30, 2016, during a broad offencive by Iraq forces to retake the city Mosul from Islamic State group jihadists. (Photo by Ahmad Al- Rubaye/AFP Photo)

Iraqis who have fled fighting between security forces and al-Qaida inspired militants in their hometown of Tal Afar arrive in a car at Germawa camp for displaced Iraqis, in a hot dusty plain in the largely-autonomous Kurdish area of Dahuk, 260 miles (430 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad Tuesday, June 17, 2014. (Photo by AP Photo)

A man shaves blocks of salt from the Danakil Depression on 28 March 2017, in Afar, Ethiopia. Every morning, hundreds of men converge on a dry lakebed in a remote corner of Ethiopia, where they cleave the ground open with handaxes to extract salt, just as their fathers and grandfathers once did. (Photo by Zacharias Abubeker/AFP Photo)

A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) female fighter's braid is pictured while she is carrying her weapon in Tal Samin village, north of Raqqa city, Syria November 19, 2016. (Photo by Rodi Said/Reuters)

Inside the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia’s Danakil desert, camel caravans are used to carry salt. For centuries, the essential mineral has been mined by the Afar people, known for their ability to withstand extremes. The terrain is rugged, travelers are scarce and so are motor vehicles, where the average annual temperature is the highest in the world, and can rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, 50 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Ziv Koren/Polaris)

Alejandro Zelayaran, 43, dressed as Santa Claus, wears a protective face shield as he poses for a photograph on a street in Mexico City, Mexico, December 3, 2020. “Faith and hope must move the heart of the humanity”, said Zelayaran, who will don a face shield when he distributes dolls and other gifts at an orphanage in Mexico City. “I want to see families taking care of each other and knowing that even from afar, love and hope always survive”. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)