Ngorongoro Conservation Area

The Ngorongoro conservation area is unique area in Tanzania home to most famous attractions in the world including Ngorongoro Crater, Empakai Crater, Olmoti Crater, Oldupai Gorge, Laetoli, Olkarien Gorge and Ndutu plains.

Ngorongoro Crater

The most famous and known Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera with abundance of wildlife. The Ngorongoro crater forms a bowl of about 265 square km covered with the highest density of wildlife including the Big Five. Ngorongoro Conservation Area is also home to Maasai tribe with fascinating culture, the Ndutu plains which is the important destination to witness the wildebeest migration during the calving season beginning from late December to March.

What to see The Ngorongoro Crater is the best place in Tanzania to see ‘The Big Five’. A healthy population of black rhino and some of the largest tusker elephants left in Africa today are the prize spots, but the crater is also home to good populations of lion, leopard and hyena along with healthy herds of wildebeest, buffalo and zebra. Other wildlife here includes serval cat, cheetah, jackal, Grant’s and Thompson’s gazelle, flamingo and bat-eared foxes, as well as approximately 400 species of bird.

Oldupai Gorge

The Oldupai Gorge archaeological site is widely regarded as the cradle of mankind and the most important prehistoric site in the world. It is at Oldupai where remains of Zinjanthropus, the world’s first humans, were discovered by Dr Louis and Mary Leakey around 60 years ago. The earliest known specimens of the human genus, Homo-habilis, as well as early hominids such as Paranthropus boisei have also been found at Oldupai. The Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley, stretching along the eastern Africa. The gorge is about thirty miles long, lying within the rain shadow of Ngorongoro highlands. The gorge is named after oldupai the Maasai word for the wild sisal plant.