Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is a Tanzanian ‘must-see’. Situated within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a vast park of spectacular beauty, this caldera, or ‘collapsed-in’ volcano has created a mini game reserve with many habitats in a very small area. This provides home to an incredibly diverse range of birds and animals, including the Big Five, in a concentrated space.
Spanning just over 8 000 km², the Ngorongoro Conservation Area includes the spectacular Ngorongoro Crater, the Olduvai Gorge, vast highland plains, forests and mountains stretching to Serengeti in the north-west. It is known for its beautiful scenery, archaeological and geological significance and concentrated wildlife, especially within the crater.

The area is unique in the fact that it is a conservation area which allows human habitation. The local Maasai tribe still live within the area, subsistence farming. This also means that the area is not only a wonderful place to see the animals of Africa, but also to get to know its people.

The Ngorongoro Crater is a caldera, or collapsed-in volcano, with walls 610 m high and a floor covering 260 km². Within this small area is a diverse range of habitats – montane forest on the rain-facing wall and grassland on the drier west wall. The floor is a vast grassland with a couple of Acacia forests, the salt-lake, Lake Makat, and Ngoitokitok Spring, which creates a swampy area in the east of the crater. The diversity of the habitat provides home to an incredibly wide range of animals and birds.

South-east of the Ngorongoro Crater lies the Karatu area, in the highlands. It’s a lush area with many coffee plantations and a variety of wonderful places to stay, a little away from the crater itself.