This is the beginning of a famous back road trip up to Laki or Lakagígar (Craters of Laki), a volcanic fissure in the south of Iceland, not far from the canyon of Eldgjá and the small village Kirkjubæjarklaustur. Lakagígar is the correct name, as Laki mountain itself did not erupt, but fissures opened up on each side of it. The fissure, which extends northeast-southwest, is divided into two nearly equal halves by the 2,684-foot mountain, which rises some 650 feet above its immediate surroundings. Mount Laki was not completely breached by the fissure; between the fissure cuts on the slopes of the mountain, there are only a few very small craters that extruded small amounts of lava.