Ngorongoro Crater

Ngorongoro Crater is the collapsed summit of an ancient volcano that once stood as tall as Kilimanjaro. The resulting caldera — 19 km across and 600 metres deep — has created a natural enclosure that is one of Africa's most extraordinary wildlife spectacles. The crater floor is home to approximately 25,000 large animals, including one of Tanzania's last remaining populations of black rhinoceros.

What makes Ngorongoro unique is its density. Because the steep walls create a natural boundary, the crater floor supports an astonishing concentration of wildlife in a relatively small area. It's entirely possible to see all Big Five — lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, and buffalo — in a single morning game drive.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area extends far beyond the crater itself, encompassing 8,292 km² of highland forest, savannah, and the Olduvai Gorge — one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in the world, where some of the earliest evidence of human evolution was discovered.