Ngorongoro Conservation Area

　　 Attraction Introduction    Inside the enormous Ngorongoro Crater lies a gathering place for wildlife, home to a large population of big mammals. In the nearby Olduvai Gorge, fossils of early humans and traces of their way of life have been unearthed. The Tanzanian government has invested significant manpower and resources to protect the wildlife in this area.

　　     The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is located in the northern part of the United Republic of Tanzania. It was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. The conservation area is a vast highland volcanic region, bordering the Serengeti National Park to the west and Lake Manyara National Park to the east, covering an area of 80,944 square kilometers. This region was administratively separated from the Serengeti National Park in 1957 to become an independent conservation area. It includes the world-renowned Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge, and the Empakaai Crater, which has turned into a deep lake.

　　    Every year between May and June, massive herds of zebras and wildebeests gather on the Serengeti Plateau, standing six or seven abreast, preparing to begin their 500-kilometer westward migration. This spectacular sight in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is rare in the world.

　　     The Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s most intact volcanic caldera, standing at an elevation of 2,286 meters. Eight million years ago, Ngorongoro was an active volcano. The crater floor, known in technical terms as a caldera — a large depression formed when a volcanic cone collapses into its vent — spans 160 square kilometers. Along the outer rim of the crater, six peaks rising over 3,000 meters stand tall and reach into the clouds.

　　     The animals within the Ngorongoro Crater range from the tiny “dik-dik” antelope to rhinos, lions, and elephants, featuring a remarkable diversity and astonishing numbers, making the crater world-famous. When spring arrives, flamingos preparing for their annual migration gather by the thousands on the crater’s salt lake, resembling a pink veil spread across the water — an extraordinarily beautiful sight. The crater also boasts a rich variety of flowers, including lilies, gladiolus, petunias, daisies, lupines, and clovers, all blooming vibrantly and adding to the crater’s captivating scenery. Maasai pastoralists have lived in the crater area for generations.

　　      In the mid-1950s, the Olduvai Gorge, a shallow canyon located 40 kilometers west of the Ngorongoro Crater, was discovered. The gorge was formed by the erosion of rock layers by ancient rivers. In 1959, anthropologists excavated a 1.25-million-year-old skull of Australopithecus here. In 1960, they unearthed fossil remains of Homo habilis dating back 1.9 million years, stone tools, and fossils of ancestors of animals still hunted today. These discoveries are of great value to the currently complex and debated study of human phylogenetics.

　　 

　　 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania