Lake Amadeus is a large salt lake in the southwest corner of Northern Territory of Australia. Lake Amadeus is located in the Amadeus basin, which is filled with erosion material from the Petermann Orogeny, a geological event that lifted and folded the earth’s crust millions of years ago.

Due to the aridity, the water level of the two lakes is mainly dependent on the rainfall in the basin. Most of the time, Lake Amadeus is dry and covered with a thin layer of bright white salt. Many small islands pick up red sand floating a few centimeters above the lake. Rooted trees are firmly anchored to the sand on the island and can withstand the saltiness of the salt as well as heat and drought.

Lake Amadeus contains an estimated 600 million tons of salt, but because of the remote location, it is not possible to collect. When rain falls in sufficient quantity it becomes part of a vast flowing drainage system that connects to the Finke River, one of the oldest rivers in the world. From there it flows for 750 kilometers from its headwater in the Northern Territory’s MacDonnell Ranges, down into Lake Eyre in outback South Australia.

Legend describes how pantu was created by wanampi (water snake). As described by late Anangu elder Paddy Uluru, “wanampi had dug out the ground with a stick to form a lake, drew concentric circles in the land”.

According to the Internet