Ngorongoro Travel Guide

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is famous for the unparalleled Ngorongoro Crater, a World Heritage Site like a natural wildlife park, visitable year-round, with the dry season Jun–Oct especially good. The crater is one of the world's largest intact, unwater-filled calderas — formed about 2–3 million years ago when a volcano taller than Kilimanjaro erupted and collapsed, about 20 km in diameter with the rim ~600 m above the floor. The floor is a self-contained miniature ecosystem of grassland, woodland, lakes and swamps; enclosed by ring walls, it hosts about 20,000–30,000 animals year-round, including lion, elephant, buffalo and the very rare black rhino (one of the best viewing spots), almost the Big Five, plus wildebeest, zebra, hippo, flamingo — viewable in a day. It is also Maasai herding land; nearby is Olduvai Gorge, the Cradle of Humankind. The rim is high and cold — bring warm clothing.