Olduvai Gorge

Olduvai Gorge (sometimes spelt Oldupai Gorge) is the most famous archeological location in East Africa, and has become an essential visit for travelers to Ngorongoro or Serengeti.  It is located about 40 km north-west of Ngorongoro Crater, just a few kilometers off the main Serengeti road.

The first European known to have seen Olduvai Gorge was a German butterly collector, Professor Wilhelm Kattwinkle.  In his notes in 1911, he described Olduvai as containing “the book of life” and he took back to Berlin a considerable number of fossils including the teeth of and extinct three toed horse known as Hipparion.

The Gorge stretches about 50 km and is up to 90 km deep.  It was made famous by the excavations over the middle part of last century by the palaeontologist Louis Leakey and more specifically by his wife, Mary Leakey.  The most important findings include Homo habilis, Zinjanthropus and the Laetoli footprints.  Louis Leakey first visited Olduvai Gorge in 1931 and he and Mary dedicated 60 years of their lives to the search of fossil and early mankind.  It was not until 24 years later, on 17 July 1959 that Mary found Zinjanthropus, named austalopithecus boisei after Charles Bois who had supported their work at Olduvai.

Twenty five miles to the southwest of Olduvai are the 3.6 million year laetoli footprints, the earliest of our forbearers are known to have left, a replica of which is featured in the museum at Olduvai.  The Laetoli footprints are the oldest known footprints in the world.