The “culprit” of this strange phenomenon at Lake Natron is a million-year-old volcano, called Ol Doinyo Lengai, located south of Lake Natron. The reason the lake has such a deadly name is that for thousands of years, any animals that stumble into the lake, their bodies are petrified in a short time. However, this place is also better known as the “Lake of Death”. Located in the north of Tanzania (Africa), Lake Natron is one of the famous lakes with magical beauty with bright red color. It is also what gives the lake its red color – Photosynthetic pigments in cyanobacteria are red in the deeper parts of the water, while the shallower parts of the lake are more orange-red. Even the water temperature is usually between 104 and 140 degrees F (40 and 60 degrees C).Īlthough most organisms cannot drink hot lake water, it is a perfect environment for a salt-loving microorganism called cyanobacteria. The climate there is so arid that most of the small rainfall the region receives evaporates before reaching the surface. And also contains a high amount of sodium carbonate decahydrate called natron, hence the name Natron lake. However, the water flowing into the lake must pass through a layer of surrounding rock containing alkaline, so the water of the lake is very salty. Most of its water comes from the hot springs and the South Ewaso Ng’iro River. It is 35 miles (56 km) long from north to south and 14 miles (22 km) wide. In the north of Tanzania, right next to Kenya, there is the beautiful and extremely popular Lake Natron.