In 1974, anthropologists discovered the remains of an ancient female they named Lucy. Lucy was 3.18 million years old. Lucy's skeleton is famous for showing that her species walked upright, though she had a small brain. The area is now inhabited by a few Afar people, who engage in salt mining which they still ship by camel trains.

The land was once part of the Red Sea. Salt deposits were created when water from the Red Sea flooded the area and then evaporated. The most recent flood was roughly 30,000 years ago. While the water is gone, salt remains in extraordinarily large quantities, and has proven to be a valuable — and fatal — commodity for locals. There are lakes but you wouldn't want to swim in them.

The area is known for its volcanoes and extreme heat, with daytime temperatures surpassing 50 °C (122 °F). It doesn't cool much at night either and the lowest temp ever recorded was 16C or 61F in February.

It is 92 metres or 280 feet below sea level, it has the highest average temperature recorded on earth of 48C. There is little risk of rain either with less than 1 inch per year.

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It is the driest non-polar desert in the world, with most of its moisture coming through fog. The almost total lack of precipitation is the most prominent characteristic of this area. It is situated between two mountain chains, the Andes and the Chilean Coast Range, which are high enough to prevent moisture from either the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean, creating a two-sided rain shadow effect. There are some places where there has never been rain recorded (over 500 years).

The area has been used as an experimentation site for Mars expedition simulations due to its similarities to the Martian environment. In 2003, a team of researchers published a report in which they duplicated the tests used by the Viking 1 and Viking 2 Mars landers to detect life and were unable to detect any signs in Atacama Desert soil.

The Atacama Desert's altitude reaches over 13,000 feet. Due to this high elevation, visitors can experience altitude sickness and should acclimatize slowly, stay hydrated, and take it easy on their first few days.  The Atacama is so arid that many mountains higher than 6,000 m (20,000 ft) are completely free of glaciers.

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The island is a protected area of India, and home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous tribe in voluntary isolation who have defended—often with force—their protected isolation from the outside world. The Sentinelese have repeatedly attacked approaching vessels. In January 2006, two Indian fishermen were fishing illegally in prohibited waters and were killed by the Sentinelese when their boat drifted too close to the island. There were no prosecutions.[

in 2018 an American Christian missionary, 26-year-old John Allen Chau, was killed after he illegally attempted to make contact with the islanders three separate times to spread Christianity to them by paying local fishermen to transport him to the island. The 2023 documentary film The Mission discusses the incident.

The Indian government prohibits travel to the island and any approach closer than five nautical miles (nine kilometres), in order to protect the remaining tribal community from "mainland" infectious diseases against which they likely have no acquired immunity. The area is patrolled by the Indian Navy.

Indian authorities recognize the islanders' desire to be left alone and will not prosecute the Sentinelese for killing people in the event that an outsider ventures ashore. No selfies from this place.

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