Miners of Ijen

Kawah Ijen is one of the strangest landscapes on earth. Its crater holds a turquoise lake, the most acidic in the world, and at night the sulphur gas escaping from its vents burns with blue flames. Along the shore, the rock is stained a vivid yellow. In the middle of all this beauty, men mine sulphur by hand. They break the crust loose through clouds of toxic gas, often with nothing but a wet cloth over their mouths, load it into baskets weighing 70 to 90 kilos, and carry it up the crater wall and down the mountain, several times a day.