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Watamu Lamu Tzavo East National Park Tzavo West National Park Amboseli Taita hills Masai Mara Samburu Nairobi Malindi Mombasa Kilifi Magadi Naivasha Nakuru Baringo Bogoria Turkana Lake Manyara Ngorongoro Crater Tarangire Serengeti National Park Lake Natron Zanzibar Lake Tanganika Lake Victoria Mount Kilimangjaro Ruhaa Selous Arusha Dar Es Salaam

The Ngorongoro Crater
and
Conservation Area




... is today administered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, an arm of the Tanzanian government. The main feature of the NCA is naturally the Ngorongoro Crater, the world's largest unbroken, unflooded volcanic caldera. The crater, Zebra in the Ngorongoro Crater formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is in an exceptional geographical position, forming a spectacular bowl ofabout 265 sq km with sides up to 600 m high. Unmatched for its natural variety, its different habitats attract various wildlife to drink, wallow, graze, hide or climb. The crater is said to have the most dense concentration of wildlife in Africa and as such it has achieved world renown and attracts a growing number of visitors each year. In addition to herds of zebra, gazelle, and wildebeest, the crater is home to the famous "Big Five": lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhinoceros, unfortunately not easy to see because their numbers have drastically declined in recent years. Elephant herds are noticeably absent from the crater floor because the cows and calves tend to prefer the forested highlands: they sometimes appear at the crater rim but only rarely venture down into the grasslands.
Apart from the crater itself, the NCA is also of great archaeological importance, with the remains of some of mankind’s earliest ancestors discovered in the area. This truly magical place is home to Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys discovered the hominoid remains of a 1.8 million year old skeleton of Australopithecus boisei, one of the distinct links of the human evolutionary chain.
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