When you think of great African sites, you probably\n think about the Sahara Desert and the Nile. You may think of the \npyramids, the Serengeti, or even the Okavango Delta. But what would you \nsay if we told you one of the most stunning pieces of Africa is the \nNgorongoro Crater?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ngorongoro Crater in the heart of Tanzania<\/a> holds the earliest origins of humanity and the best hope for more than 25,000 animals today. Read on to discover some more amazing Ngorongoro Crater facts <\/strong>and learn why you should put this amazing place on your bucket list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first thing you should know about the Ngorongoro Crater is that \nit\u2019s not actually a crater. In fact, it\u2019s a caldera, a depression formed\n when the top of a volcano explodes. This explosion happened several \nmillion years ago, and the top of the mountain collapsed on itself, \nforming a divot in the top of the mountain twelve miles wide and 2,000 \nfeet deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As you might expect, water began to pool in this divot, and soon, \nlush plant life was growing there. Animals followed the plants, \npredators followed the animals, and humans followed the predators. This \nlush caldera teeming with life was protected for the first time in 1959 \nand in 1979 was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken caldera in the world \nthat\u2019s not completely a lake. Oftentimes, that gathering of water we \nmentioned never stops, and the caldera becomes a vast lake at the top of\n a mountain. Lake Toba in Sumatra, Indonesia is the largest caldera \nknown today and is currently occupied by a lake. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The other thing that often happens is that the caldera collapses into\n a sinkhole. An explosion of that force leaves a massive chasm where all\n that rock and dust once was, and it usually collapses in on itself. It \ntakes a very special set of circumstances for a caldera like the \nNgorongoro Crater to be formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the things that makes the Ngorongoro Crater so special is that\n it is teeming with life. The bowl-shaped depression has collected water\n and created a rich soil perfect for growing beautiful, lush plants. And\n that abundance of natural resources has brought animals by the \nthousands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are more than 25,000 wild animals living in the caldera today. Scientists estimate that the caldera is home to 7,000 wildebeest, 4,000 zebras, 3,000 elands, 3,000 gazelles, 600 hyenae, about 300 elephants, more than 60 lions, about 30 rhinos, and many, many others. And that\u2019s to say nothing of the 500 bird species ranging from ostriches to secretary birds that live in the Ngorongoro Crater<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirty rhinos may not sound like a lot spread across a twelve-mile \ncaldera, but this is actually the place you have the best chance of \nspotting a black rhino in the wild. These beautiful creatures have two \nlong horns and weigh as much as 3,000 pounds. They also have a hooked \nupper lip, one of the features that differentiates them from their white\n rhino cousins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Black rhinos\n were hunted nearly to the point of extinction in the 20th century. \nPopulations dropped by a staggering 98 percent until there were less \nthan 3,000 left in the wild. Today, thanks to tireless conservation \nefforts, the black rhino is starting to make a comeback, and today, \nthere are more than 5,000 of these beautiful animals living in the wild.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we say you might see a million wildebeest in the Ngorongoro \nCrater, we aren\u2019t exaggerating. Each year between December and March, \nmore than 2 million of the animals pass through the Ngorongoro Crater, \nalong with zebras and gazelles. If you need some scale, the wildebeest \nstampede that killed Mufasa and traumatized us all in the 1994 movie The Lion King<\/em> contained about 9,000 wildebeest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These 2 million wildebeest are part of The Great Migration, a huge movement that takes in the Serengeti National Park. This movement goes throughout the year, with these herds moving where the new food is. They make a circular motion, and their circle passes through the Ngorongoro Crater <\/strong>around the beginning of each year.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It isn\u2019t just animals that have found a home in the Ngorongoro \nCrater. Humans have long been drawn to the area, too. In fact, \nscientists now believe it may be the cradle from which our earliest \nhuman ancestors descended into the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Ngorongoro Crater, there is a steep ravine in the Great Rift \nValley called the Oldupai Gorge. Along this ridge, scientists have \ndiscovered human footprints dating back two million years. This is some \nof the oldest evidence we have of early humans and places the Ngorongoro\n Crater in a special place in our species history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you want to spend a night in the place that saw the dawn of \nhumanity and which houses thousands of animals, you can do that. There \nare a number of lodges all along the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater where \nyou can stay the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Imagine after a long day exploring the natural wonder of the caldera that you come back to your lodge, enjoy some traditional Tanzanian food<\/a>,\n and go out onto the deck of your lodge. You watch the sun sink down \nover the ridge of the Ngorongoro Crater and look up at the same stars \nour ancestors watched for signs of things to come. And in the morning, \nyou wake to see the sun rising over the opposite rim of the caldera, \nstarting a new day in one of Africa\u2019s most amazing locales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Ngorongoro Crater holds the origins of humanity, the future of animals, and the beauty of the ages. And these Ngorongoro Crater facts<\/strong> are just the tip of the caldera. If you want to learn more, you\u2019ll have to visit the crater and discover the wonder for yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019d like to see the Ngorongoro Crater yourself, check out the \nrest of our site at African Sermon Safaris. We offer trips to Kenya, \nTanzania, and Zanzibar to see the most amazing sights Africa has to \noffer. Learn more about our Tanzania safaris<\/a> and start planning your adventure today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you think of great African sites, you probably think about the Sahara Desert and the Nile. You may think of the pyramids, the Serengeti, or even the Okavango Delta. But what would you say if we told you one of the most stunning pieces of Africa is the Ngorongoro Crater? The Ngorongoro Crater in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1674,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/africansermonsafaris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1. How the Crater Was Created<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2. It\u2019s the Biggest of Its Kind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
3. It\u2019s Brimming with Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
4. You Can Spot a Black Rhino<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
5. It Sees a Million Wildebeest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
6. Humanity Started There<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
7. You Can Sleep on the Rim<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Discover More Ngorongoro Crater Facts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n