Serengeti

　　 Attraction Introduction      Located west of the East African Rift Valley and about 130 km northwest of Arusha, a narrow strip extends 8 km westward into Lake Victoria and reaches north to the Kenyan border. It became a protected area after 1940; in 1929, an area of 228,600 hectares in central Serengeti was designated as a hunting reserve; in 1951, it was established as a national park; and expanded in 1959.      It is internationally recognized as part of the Serengeti–Ngorongoro Biosphere Reserve under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (together with the adjacent Maswa Game Reserve), and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in the same year. Serengeti National Park (1,476,300 hectares) is part of the larger ecological reserve (2,305,000 hectares). It borders Ngorongoro Conservation Area (809,440 hectares) to the southeast, Loliondo Game Controlled Area (400,000 hectares) to the northeast, Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve (151,000 hectares) to the north, and Grumeti Game Reserve (500,000 hectares) to the west. The elevation ranges from 920 meters to 1,850 meters.       The Serengeti plains mainly consist of volcanic ash-covered crystalline rocks, dotted with numerous granite outcrops (hills). The northern and western strips are primarily mountainous, formed by volcanic activity. Two perennial rivers flow westward, along with numerous lakes, swamps, and springs. Rainfall is concentrated between November and May of the following year, peaking in December and March–April. The average annual temperature is 20.8°C. At an altitude of 1,150 meters, the recorded average annual precipitation is 1,210 mm. Rainfall decreases eastward, increases from north to west, reaching up to 950 mm annually in the narrow strip near Lake Victoria in the west, and up to 1,150 mm near the Kenyan border at the northernmost point of the park. The vegetation is predominantly open grassland, though it can turn almost entirely desert-like during severe droughts. The main plants are grasses such as Digitaria and Sporobolus (representative of saline-alkali soils). In moister areas, Kyllinga species dominate. The central part of the park features large expanses of Acacia woodland savannah. Hilly vegetation, dense woodlands, and some gallery forests cover much of the northern part of the park. Lowland and montane vegetation mainly consists of Acacia.

　　 

　　 

　　 

　　 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania