This deceiving landscape of snow and melting lakes of spring are none other than the harsh, dry, crusty film of white salt coating the flats of Chott El Jerid. It is technically not even a lake as it is dry for at least 10 months of the year. These flats have deceived and claimed many lives with its simple, white and uncomplicated appearance. Black mud that lies beneath it has over the centuries claimed the lives of thousands of camels and their human caretakers while crossing it. It is almost unfathomable that such a place of pristine and innocent beauty could create such a dark history.