When at last you arrive at the highest point of the hillsides of the Ngorongoro crater, a garden of Eden on Earth opens up at your feet. You will never have seen anything quite like it, so much life in one single space. For this reason, the Maasai, who arrived here two thousand years ago called it el-Nkoronkoro “Gift of life”.
The crater forms part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, in 1979 it was declared a World Heritage site by Unesco. It covers an area of 8000 km2 and is where the Oldupai Gorge can be found, an important site for the investigation of the evolution of the human species.
In Ngorongoro, one can find hippopotamuses in the springs of Ngoitoktok, flamingos in Lake Magadi, and even large herds of elephants. The abundance of water and pastures allows the presence of wildebeest, zebras, buffaloes, Grant gazelles, different antelopes, wild boar, and of course large predators such as lions, hyenas, and jackals. There are still around 30 black rhinoceros which are specially protected as it is a very threatened species.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a vast and untouched protected area teeming with the densest wildlife populations on earth, breathtaking landscapes, mountains, the world’s largest unbroken caldera, history of human evolution, and so much more.
The Empakaai Crater is a collapsed volcanic caldera that is 300 meters high and has a width of 6 km. The Crater is filled with a deep alkaline lake which occupies about 75% of the Crater’s floor and is about 85 meters deep. You can see Oldonio Lengai, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Great Rift Valley from the Crater’s rim.
Olmoti Crater is situated at the northern end of the Ngorongoro Crater, from where Mount Lolmalasin, Tanzania’s third tallest mountain, can be viewed. The crater is about 6.5 kilometers in diameter, and the highest point above sea level is approximately 3,080m.
At 5,895 m, Kilimanjaro is the highest point in Africa. This volcanic massif stands in splendid isolation above the surrounding plains, with its snowy peak looming over the savannah. The mountain is encircled by mountain forest. Numerous mammals, many of them endangered species, live in the park.
