Africa’s Garden of Eden
Ngorongoro Conservational Area
The Ngorongoro Crater in Northern Tanzania, once a gigantic volcano, is the largest intact caldera in the world. Some maintain that before it erupted, it would have been higher than Mt Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.
Today, long since having collapsed and eroded, it is an extensive highland area with the famous 600 m deep Ngorongoro Crater as its focal point. Nearly three million years old, the ancient caldera shelters one of the most beautiful wildlife havens on earth.
The Ngorongoro crater, also known as ‘Africa’s Garden of Eden’, is located inside the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, an 1892 km² site in northeast Tanzania.
The Crater is made of a vast caldera, formed when a volcano the size of Mount Kilimanjaro erupted and then collapsed on itself over 2.5 million years ago.
Today, the Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unfilled, intact, and inactive volcano in the whole world. This impressive crater is over 600 meters (2000 feet) deep deep, with high walls towering around the crater edge and a whopping area of 259 km2.
The best time to visit Ngorongoro is between May and October, during Tanzania’s dry season. Animals are known to gather around water sources, so you will have the best opportunity to see the big five and more.
During the rainy season (November-March) some animals are hidden away in the short grass plains, bringing up their young.
You can visit the Ngorongoro crater by flying into Kilimanjaro International Airport, which is 50km from Arusha.
