Lava lake in pictures: Photographer gets dangerously close

These fiery images offer a glimpse inside the 'Gateway To Hell', the world's oldest continuously active lava lake.

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Travel photographer Joel Santos, 38, piloted a drone low over the bubbling lake, which reaches temperatures exceeding 1,100C.

The lake, which has had a continuous flow since 1906, is situated inside the Erta Ale volcano, otherwise known as Smoking Mountain, in the Afar region of northeastern Ethiopia.