THE NGORONGORO CRATER IN TANZANIA

Thursday, 31.Aug 2023

The Ngorongoro Crater is known around the world for its wildlife and as the home of the Maasai tribe one of Africa's most fascinating tribe.

Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania is located in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which spans across vast expanses of highland plains, savanna woodlands and forest. Established in 1959 as a multiple land use area, with wildlife coexisting with semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists practicing traditional livestock grazing, it includes the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater the world’s largest caldera, and Olduvai Gorge, a 14km long deep ravine. The property has global importance for biodiversity conversation due to the presence of globally threatened species, the density of wildlife inhabiting the area, and the annual migration of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, and other animals into the northern plains. Extensive archaeological research has also yielded a long sequence of evidence of human evolution and human-environment dynamics, including early hominid footprints dating back 3.6 million years.

the area has been subjected to extensive archaeological research for over 80 years and has yielded a long sequence of evidence of human evolution and human-environment dynamics, collectively extending over a span of almost four million years to the early modern area. This evidence includes fossilized footprints at Laetoli, associated with the development of humans bipedalism, a sequence of diverse, evolving hominin species within Olduvai Gorge which range from Australopiths such as Zinjanthropus biosei to the Homo lineage that Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens; an early form of Homo sapiens at Lake Ndutu; and in the Ngorongoro crater, remains that document development of stones technology and the document the of the development of stones technology and the transition to the rise of anatomically modern humans, modern behavior and human ecology.  

The stunning landscape of Ngorongoro Crater combined with its spectacular concentration of wildlife is one of the greatest natural wonders of the planet. Spectacular wildebeest number (well over 1 million animals) pass through the property as part of the annual migration of wildebeest across the Serengeti ecosystem and calve in the short grass plains which straddle the Ngorongoro Conservation Area/Serengeti national Park boundary. This constitute a truly superb natural phenomenon.

Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken caldera in the world. The Crater, together with the Olmoti and Empakaai Crater are part of the eastern Rift Valley, whose volcanism dates back to the late Masozoic / early Tertiary period and is famous for its geology. The property also includes Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge, which contain an important palaeontological record related to human evolution.

ACTIVITIES & ATTRACTIONS

Due to the large number of wildlife species and other attractions in Ngorongoro, there that tourists can engage in when they visit. Because of these attractions and activities, Tanzania has been sold to the world and is very famous for having Ngorongoro Crater as a Conservation area. Some of the attractions include the wildlife spicies and Ngorongoro conservation area happens to be one of the only places in the world where you will find all the Big five animals of Africa. Buffalos, lions, elephants, leopards and the rhinos. the most famous activity for viewing the wildlife is the wildlife. Other attractions in Ngorongoro includes bird species, the amazing caldera of the Ngorongoro Crater, Gold mountains, a visit to the Olduvai Museum and footprints at the Laetoli. 

Being a national reserve and the fact that Ngorongoro Conservation Area receives a large number of tourists from across the world throughout the year, many companies have come up to build different structures that shall fit in to accommodate different clients who are on Safari. Ngorongoro has a number of lodges and hotels around the park with the best facing the caldera crater lake of Ngorongoro to often great lake as a number of wildlife graze around these accommodation facilities. These allow travelers to come up close with the wildlife and interact with them. At some point you might wake up to giraffe or elephants at your doorstep and this amazing interaction with nature will leave you fascinate about Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.

THE BEST TIME TO VISIT NGORONGORO CRATER

Ngorongoro Crater has a wide variety of species and wildlife and is open for visiting all year round. However there are seasons which are very interesting for tourist to visit, during the wet season animals be less in the park as they hide for shelter and the roads are usually slipper and impassable. Therefore most of the travelers opt for the month of June to September and December to February which are usually dry months. Animal species like lions, cheetahs, elephants, buffaloes they all come out in big numbers in search for water. Also the roads are easy to navigate during these months. Therefore these months are the best time for tourist to visit Ngorongoro Crater.

VEGETATION IN NGORONGORO CONSERVATION AREA

The Ngorongoro is home to both lush green, rain-fed vegetation and arid species. Uncultivated lowland vegetation, arid and semi-arid plant communities, abundant short grass for grazing, and highland forest can all be found in the area.

The steep slopes of the Crater covered in scrub health, grassland, high open moorland and the remnants of dense evergreen forest, while highland trees such as peacock flower, yellow-wood, kousso (hagenia abyssinica) and sweet olive can also be found. On Oldeani Mountain, there are also lengths of pure bamboo, as well as pencil ceder on Makarut Mountain to the west. lower slopes are dominated by doveweeds, while upland forest contain red thorn acacia and gum Acacia, which are important for watershed protection