Located between the
Serengeti and Lake Manyara, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is home to the
famous volcanic Ngorongoro Crater and one of Tanzania's most
popular wildlife viewing areas. This huge volcanic crater has a permanent
supply of water which draws all kinds of animals who stay in this area rather
than migrating. Visitors come here primarily for viewing large game and bird
watching, but also of interest in the conservation area is the Olduvai
Gorge. This important archeological site has revealed ancient skull and
bone fragments that have delivered critical information about early mankind.
The Ngorongoro Crater
is the largest intact ancient caldera in the world, nearly three million years
old. The Ngorongoro volcano was one of the world's tallest mountains before it
exploded and collapsed. Thousands of wild game can be seen on the crater floor,
including lions, elephants, rhinos, Thomson's gazelles, and buffaloes, but
wildebeests and zebras account for over half of the animals that call the
Ngorongoro Crater home. Bird watching is superb, especially around Lake
Migadi, which attracts flocks of flamingoes to the shallows. Hippos are
content to submerge themselves during the day and then graze in the nearby
grass in the evening.
Olduvai Gorge
The Olduvai Gorge is
an archeological site situated on a series of fault lines, where centuries of
erosion have revealed fossils and remnants of early mankind. As early as 1911,
a German professor found some fossil bones while looking for butterflies in
Olduvai Gorge. In a later expedition, the Leakeys collected skull fragments, a
skull, and bones determined to be approximately 2 million years old. Tools and
hunting weapons from 1 to 1.5 million years ago were also discovered in Olduvai
Gorge. Another exciting find were the famous footprints of a man, woman and
child at Laetoli, near Olduvai. These and other discoveries provide more
evidence to the theory that at least three hominid species were in this region
over 2 million years ago.
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