Víti (Askja)

Víti crater lake at Askja in Iceland's uninhabited central highlands is a maar (explosion crater) lake filled with geothermally heated sulfurous water at a permanently warm temperature of approximately 23°C, set within the vast Askja caldera of the Dyngjufjöll volcanic massif — one of Iceland's most remote and dramatic volcanic landscapes, accessible only in summer by highland 4WD tracks crossing the Ódáðahraun lava desert. The Askja caldera collapsed in 1875 during a massive volcanic eruption that blanketed much of Iceland in ash and devastated northern farms, triggering significant emigration, and Víti ('Hell' in Icelandic) was formed in the same eruption. Bathing in Víti's opaque, sulfurous, geothermally warm water while surrounded by the kilometre-wide caldera walls and the vast volcanic desert of the interior Icelandic highlands is an experience of singular geological drama, available only after a commitment to Iceland's most extreme highland road conditions.