Afar is one of the places where the first of the present inhabitants of Ethiopia settled to elaborate their pastoral life into full-scale nomadism, descending from the highlands of southeast Ethiopia and migrating to the stony desert area of Danakil.
The Afar Triangle, the northern part of which is the Danakil Depression, is part of the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia. It has the lowest point in Ethiopia and one of the lowest in Africa. The southern part of the region consists of the valley of the Awash River, which empties into a string of lakes along the Ethiopian–Djibouti border.
