Where the Red Sea meets the Horn — salt flats, whale sharks and French espresso
Djibouti City is one of the world's most strategically peculiar capitals: a blistering port at the mouth of the Red Sea where French colonialism, Somali nomadism, and Yemeni coffee culture collide over plates of skoudehkaris rice and cups of thick black qahwa. Lake Assal — the saltiest lake outside Antarctica and Africa's lowest point — is two hours' drive through lunar lava fields. The Gulf of Tadjourah hides some of the Indian Ocean's finest diving, and whale sharks aggregate offshore every winter in the Bay of Ghoubbet.
The territory was colonised by France in 1888 as 'French Somaliland' and renamed 'French Territory of the Afars and Issas' before independence in 1977. Its position at the Bab-el-Mandeb strait — the world's fourth-busiest shipping lane — has made it militarily indispensable: it hosts French, American, Japanese, Chinese and Italian military bases simultaneously, the only place on earth where all five permanent UN Security Council members have a military presence.