Tanzania's Lake Natron can hit 140F with a pH close to ammonia. Creatures that die there are calcified where they fall, yet millions of flamingos nest on it, untouched by any predator.
A shallow soda lake in the East African Rift, fed by mineral-rich hot springs and dyed blood-red by salt-loving microbes.
How water almost as alkaline as ammonia preserves the bodies of animals that die along its shoreline.
The photographer found bats and birds preserved intact by the lake's chemistry, then posed them as if alive for his series 'Across the Ravaged Land'.
A reality check: nothing is petrified on contact. The animals die first, and only then do the minerals calcify and preserve them.
A WION report separating the viral legend from what actually happens at the lake's lethal edge.
Lake Natron is the single most important breeding site on Earth for lesser flamingos, which raise chicks on salt islands no predator will cross.
The same sodium-carbonate compound that gives the lake its name was used by ancient Egyptians to dry out and preserve their mummies.