Everything ChatDjibouti will tell you, in one place.
Capital. The capital is Djibouti City, which is also the country's name. Most Djiboutians live there.
Location. Djibouti is in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia to the west and south, Somalia (Somaliland) to the southeast, and the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to the east. Yemen is just across the water.
History. Djibouti became independent from France on 27 June 1977. Before that it was French Somaliland, and from 1967 the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas.
Languages. Arabic and French are the official languages, while Somali and Afar are the most widely spoken at home. Four languages in one small country.
People. Roughly one million people live in Djibouti, and most of them live in the capital.
Size. Djibouti covers about 23,200 km², roughly the size of New Jersey or Wales.
Lake Assal. Lake Assal sits 155 m below sea level, the lowest point in Africa. It is about ten times saltier than the ocean, and Afar caravans still carry its salt out by camel.
Lake Abbe. Lake Abbe, on the border with Ethiopia, is a moonscape of limestone chimneys that steam at dawn. Flamingos and Afar herders share the shores. Some of the chimneys reach 50 m, and the story that Planet of the Apes was filmed here is a myth.
Whale sharks. Every winter, whale sharks, the largest fish in the world, gather in the Gulf of Tadjoura, and visitors can snorkel right next to them.
Money. The Djiboutian franc is pegged to the US dollar at 177.721 francs per dollar, a rate that has barely changed in decades.
Economy. Djibouti's port handles the vast majority of landlocked Ethiopia's imports and exports. Ships, not sand, drive the economy.
Strategic position. Djibouti sits beside the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, a gateway to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. It hosts military bases of the US, France, China, Japan and Italy, all within a few dozen kilometres of each other.
Railway. An electrified railway links Djibouti to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. It opened in 2018 and cut the trip from days by road to roughly ten hours.
Climate. Djibouti is one of the hottest countries on Earth: summer highs pass 40 °C and it gets only about 150 mm of rain a year. Pack water.
Food. Try skoudehkaris, spiced rice with lamb, and fahfah, a hearty meat soup. Breakfast is often lahoh, a spongy pancake. Almost all the food is imported or fished from the Red Sea.
Government. Ismail Omar Guelleh has been president since 1999. He succeeded Hassan Gouled Aptidon, the country's first president after independence. The prime minister, who heads the government, is Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed (in office since 2013, as far as my data goes; check a news site for changes).
Regions. Djibouti has six regions: Ali Sabieh, Arta, Dikhil, Djibouti, Obock and Tadjourah.
Geology. Djibouti sits on the Afar Triple Junction, where three tectonic plates are pulling apart. In 1978 the Ardoukoba volcano erupted and tore open a new rift in the desert. One day the Red Sea may flood the region and Africa will have a new sea.
Internet. Djibouti is a major internet crossroads: numerous submarine cables land here, linking Africa, Europe and Asia.
The name. Nobody agrees on where the name comes from. One theory traces it to Afar 'gabouti', meaning a plate. It is pronounced ji-BOO-tee, and spelt with an 'o' that people often forget.
Sports. Ahmed Salah won Djibouti's first Olympic medal, a bronze in the marathon at Seoul 1988. A fitting sport for a country that is mostly desert.
Mountains. The highest point is Mousa Ali (also spelled Moussa Ali), at 2,028 m, on the border with Eritrea and Ethiopia. Quite a drop from Lake Assal, the lowest point in Africa.
Religion. Islam is the religion of the overwhelming majority of Djiboutians and is the state religion.
Flag. The flag has light blue for the sky and sea, green for the earth, and a white triangle with a red star that stands for unity and the blood shed for independence.
Nature. Djibouti's rare Day Forest National Park shelters the Djibouti francolin, a critically endangered bird found nowhere else on Earth.
Travel. For a getaway try Moucha Island, with white sand and coral reefs in the Gulf of Tadjoura. Add Lake Assal and a whale shark swim and you have a pretty good itinerary.
Farming and water. Djibouti has no permanent rivers and almost no farmland. Rain is scarce, so most food is imported and the country leans on desalination and underground water.
Demonym. Someone from Djibouti is called a Djiboutian, whether a man or a woman. Most Djiboutians belong to the Somali (mainly Issa) and Afar communities.
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Djibouti is one of the smallest countries in mainland Africa, but it has one of its busiest ports.
Djibouti City is one of the hottest cities in the world, with summer nights that barely drop below 30 °C.
In the Afar region, salt from Lake Assal has been traded by camel caravan for centuries.
Djibouti is a crossroads where Arab, African, and French influences meet. You'll hear greetings in four languages in a single street.
Djibouti's coast on the Red Sea is a world-class dive site, with coral reefs and sea turtles.
Lake Assal is the lowest point in Africa and the third lowest depression on Earth.
Djibouti is one of the very few countries that hosts both US and Chinese military bases.
Djibouti is a French-speaking country in the Horn of Africa. The Horn is named for its shape on the map.
Khat, a leafy stimulant chewed in the afternoon, is a popular pastime in Djibouti.
Camp Lemonnier, set up in 2001 next to Djibouti's international airport, is a permanent U.S. base in Africa.
The Djiboutian franc has been pegged at 177.721 to the US dollar since 1973. Few things in Djibouti stay this cool.
Moucha and Maskali, two small islands at the entrance of the Gulf of Tadjoura, are Djibouti's island escapes.
Cut stones about three million years old have been found near Lake Abbé. People have been squinting at that heat for a long time.
The Addis Ababa–Djibouti railway was built by two Chinese state-owned companies, China Railway Group and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.
The Danakil Desert, which reaches into Djibouti, is one of the lowest and hottest places on Earth.
Lake Assal is topped up from below: seawater from the bay of Ghoubbet al-Kharab, 10 km away, seeps in through the rift.
Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait right next to Djibouti, means 'Gate of Tears' in Arabic.
Catholicism arrived in Djibouti in 1885 with French Capuchin missionaries, who presumably also complained about the heat.
Djibouti has ten airports, which is a lot for 23,200 km².
Djibouti's main industries are construction, agricultural processing and shipping. Naps are not officially counted.
Djibouti has potential for geothermal power, with the rift under its feet doing the heating.
The Day Forest and Mount Mabla are Djibouti's two remaining closed, protected forests.
About 60% of Djiboutians are Somali and about 35% are Afar.
Mousa Ali, Djibouti's highest point, is also where Djibouti, Ethiopia and Eritrea meet, though the three never formally agreed on the exact spot.
Independence Day is 27 June, and everybody gets the day off. The heat does not.
Obock, on the northern coast, was the first French colony in the region, founded by treaty with Afar rulers on 11 March 1862.
Djibouti is almost the exact opposite of a rainy country: it gets about 150 mm of rain a year, which London manages in a month.