Djibouti

Djibouti is the size of New Jersey, has fewer than a million people, and sits on the most strategically valuable piece of real estate in Africa. Positioned at the mouth of the Red Sea where the Bab-el-Mandeb strait connects to the Gulf of Aden, roughly 30% of global shipping passes within sight of its coast. This has turned a tiny desert nation into a landlord for the world's superpowers - the US, China, France, Italy, and Japan all maintain military bases here, making Djibouti the only place where American and Chinese soldiers are stationed just miles apart.

The landscape looks like another planet entirely. Lake Assal, sitting 155 meters below sea level, is the lowest point in Africa and one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth - ten times saltier than the ocean. Lac Abbe, near the Ethiopian border, is a forest of limestone chimneys rising from a barren moonscape, so otherworldly that it served as a filming location for the original Planet of the Apes. Average temperatures regularly exceed 40°C, making Djibouti a strong contender for the hottest country on Earth. Yet people have thrived here for millennia, and the Afar and Issa Somali communities continue traditions that predate every empire that ever tried to control this strait.