Lake Natron in Tanzania is so alkaline that animals that die there end up looking as if they were turned to stone.
Why it is true
The water can have a pH above 10 and is rich in sodium carbonate, the same salt the Egyptians used for mummification. Birds that fall into the lake dry out and become coated in salts. Even so, it is the main breeding ground of the lesser flamingo.
Source: National Geographic
Would you rather be asked first?
This is the reading side of the site, so the answer is in the sentence above — that is the whole point of it. Test yourself works the other way round: the question comes on its own, and the fact and the explanation only appear once you have answered.
Related facts
The Namib Desert in Africa is the oldest desert in the world, having existed for at least 55 million years.
At the Strait of Gibraltar, Europe and Africa are separated by only about 14 km of sea.
Finland has about 188,000 lakes.
The Sahara Desert is almost the size of the United States.
