Ngorongoro Crater
The Ngorongoro Crater at 2.286 m above sea level is the largest unbroken caldera in the world.
Surrounded by very steep walls rising 610 m from the craters base, this natural amphitheatre covers an area of about 260 km² or 100 square miles, and is the home of up to 30.000 animals, almost half of them zebras and wildebeests.
There are also gazelles, buffaloes, elands, hartebeests and warthogs. Such vast numbers attract plenty of predators, mainly lions and hyenas but also cheetahs and leopards.
More than 100 species of birds, not found in the Serengeti, have been spotted here, countless flamingos form a pink blanket over the soda lake.
The Crater has been declared a world heritage site.
The Ngorongoro Crater lies within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which covers more than 8.000 km².
It's bordered by Lake Eyasi in the southwest and Gol Mountain in the north. Roughly in the centre the olbalal swamp and the arid Oldvai Gorge are located.
Oldvai Gorge
Located within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is the Oldvai Gorge, 180 km outside of Arusha. It was here that Dr. Louis Leakey discovered the remainders of the Homo habilis, the "skillful person" or "handy man", regarded as mankind's first step on the ladder of human evolution. But many more fossils have been discovered here including those of prehistorical elephants, giant horned sheep and enormous ostriches.