Photographer Nicola Bailey travels to hell and back to show us incredible images of Danakil Depression, an inferno of boiling otherworldly wonders in northern Ethiopia.

The hottest place on earth. That was one of the first things I learned about the Danakil Depression, a vast and surreal landscape in the northern part of Ethiopia, bordering Eritrea.

With a complexion better suited to an igloo than scorching sunshine, I should have been deterred. However, challenging trips have always attracted me and the more I read, the more I was drawn to this isolated and difficult terrain. The depression lies at the junction of three tectonic plates and at more than 100 meters below sea level, is also one of the lowest places on earth.