The cone
Above the plains.
Daniel Msirikale — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Clem23 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ben Shoshana — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Daniel Msirikale — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pyjoel — CC BY-SA 4.0
Ol Doinyo Lengai is an active volcano in northern Tanzania, a tall, symmetrical cone rising alone above the dry plains of the Rift Valley. Its grey-white summit gleams in the sun, deep gullies score its slopes, and plains of ash and grass spread around it. The volcano rises more than 1,800 m above the Rift Valley and has two craters either side of its summit, the northern of which has erupted in historical times. It is the only volcano on Earth known to erupt natrocarbonatite, an unusually cool and very fluid lava. It erupted in 2007–2008. It lies 16 km south of Lake Natron and 120 km northwest of Arusha. The Maasai call it «the Mountain of God». You see it from the plains and the Lake Natron road early in the morning, when the air is clear. Some visitors climb it overnight with a guide to reach the crater at sunrise, a very steep and hard ascent. The volcano is about 15 km in a straight line south of the village of Engare Sero. The plains are very hot, so carry plenty of water, and only climb with a licensed guide, as the volcano is active.
Above the plains.
At sunrise.
All around.
Rift Valley, Arusha Region, northern Tanzania
Yes, very steep and starts at night.
Lake Natron to the north.