Ngorongoro Conservation Area
World's largest intact volcanic caldera
Tanzania
Big Five
About Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Ngorongoro is a World Heritage Site built around the largest intact volcanic caldera on earth, a 260-square-kilometre crater floor 600 metres below the rim that holds one of the densest concentrations of wildlife in Africa, including black rhino, lion, elephant and hyena, all visible in a single day's drive. It is a conservation area rather than a national park because the Maasai live and graze in it, and the crater is only part of it: the highlands, the Ndutu plains where the wildebeest calve from about December to March, and Olduvai Gorge, where the Leakeys found early human fossils, are all inside. The rim lodges are cold at night; the crater is a malaria-low area.
Things to do: Crater tours · Cultural visits
Where you can stay: Crater rim lodges
Stay in & near Ngorongoro Conservation Area
Inside-park stays and nearby lodges, sorted by distance.