Photo by Vladimir Nardin 

Ngorongoro Crater: Exploring the Garden of Eden

A collapsed volcano, the cradle of human civilization, Simba of the Lion King 

About 180 kilometers west of the city of Arusha, Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania is believed to have been formed 2 and 3 million years ago when an ancient volcano blew its top. Encompassing a floor area of 260 square miles, Ngorongoro is one of the largest calderas (or collapsed volcanos) in the world.  The distance from rim to crater floor is 610 meters. So, what does Ngorongoro mean?

Explanations abound. It means ‘big hole’ in a local dialect. It was named after a group of Datooga warriors. It was named after Maasai man who made bells for cattle (Maasai are legally permitted to graze cattle in Ngorongoro, although they must enter and exit daily). No clear answer is given.

Photo by andi emperador 

One thing is for certain: Ngorongoro is a modern-day Garden of Eden. Early hominid footprints dating back more than 3 million years have been found in the crater. Nearby Olduvai Gorge is believed to have been the cradle of human civilization. On a 1959 excavation, paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey unearthed fossilized teeth and bits of a skull belonging to homo habilis and Paranthropus boisei.

With the wide range of animals active in the area, it’s also a popular safari destination. Over 25,000 large animals (including lions, leopards, zebras, buffalo, elephants, cheetah, wildebeest and rhinos) inhabit the crater. Walk the circumference perimeter early in the morning to behold the morning mist as it swirls in the crater bowl like a cauldron of primordial soup. Eventually, the mist abates. The temperature rises. The big sky turns a brilliant shade of blue above the flocks of bright pink flamingos who spend most of their time in the crater’s shallow saline lakes. It is believed the birds get their pinkish color from a diet of shrimp.

Photo by David Thyberg 

The whole Serengeti ecosystem, of which Ngorongoro Crater is part, is a place of grandiose beginnings and violent endings. Simba (of The Lion King) took his first glimpses of the world in a fictionalized Serengeti. Want to visit Ngorongoro? Bring a hat, sunscreen, a reinforced vehicle and don’t forget your sense of wonder.

—Marthe Weyandt