In the absence of consensus on what should be the criteria, one can just say 'kind of'. While some people think that the place which boasts of the highest recorded temperature at any given point of time should be considered the hottest, others are of the firm opinion that the place with the highest average temperature should make the cut. Let's assume that there are two places, 'place A' with an average temperature of 110 °F and 'place B' which has recorded a temperature of 130 °F at some point of time. The first group believes that place B is the hottest based on the 130 °F temperature recorded at a specific point of time, while the second group believes that consistently high temperatures make place A the hottest. If we go by the highest recorded temperature at any given point of time―which is what we have done―then Death Valley is no doubt the world's hottest place. However, if the average temperature of a place is to be taken into consideration, the distinction of being the current hottest place on the planet would go to Dallol, Ethiopia. In Dallol, the annual mean temperature is 93.9 °F (34.4 °C), which is based on the data for the period between 1960 and 1966. A mining settlement in the past, the place is now considered unsuitable for human settlement and thus, has been declared a 'ghost town' by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. Interestingly, Ethiopia is considered the hottest country in the world. In the absence of roads and railways, the only means of reaching Dallol is camel ride. A decent transport infrastructure was in place here in the beginning of the 20th century, but was destroyed during the second World War. While Death Valley is officially the hottest place on the planet, researchers are yet to rule out the existence of places which are hotter than it. If the data collected by NASA's Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board the Aqua satellite is to go by, the Dasht-e Lut (Lut desert) in Iran comes forth as the hottest place with a land surface temperature of 159.3 °F (70.7 °C). Australia's Badlands with a land surface temperature of 156.7 °F (69.2 °C) are on the second position, while the Flaming Mountains, China, are on the third position with a temperature of 152.2 °F (66.8 °C). There is no denying the fact that temperature readings in the range of 150 °F seem more than impressive, but are they credible? The critics are quick to retort that the temperature measured by a satellite―instead of using instruments which are normally used―cannot be taken into consideration.