The Olduvai Gorge, which is a remarkable archaeological site in East Africa and perhaps in the world. It was officially recognized as a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979. Exposed within the sides of the gorge is a remarkably rich chronicle of human ancestry and the evolution of the Serengeti ecosystem.
It was here that Mary and Louis Leakey, over the course of more than 30 years of backbreaking work, unearthed the first well-dated fossils and artifacts of some of our earliest human ancestors.
Their discoveries include the famous Zinjanthropus (Australopithecus boisei) skull, as well as remains of Homo habilis, the presumed maker of the numerous early stone tools found in deposits ranging in age from 1.6 to 1.8 million years ago, and Homo erectus, the larger- bodied and larger- brained hominin that preceded the earliest modern humans (Homo sapiens).
The gorge may be visited year-round. It is necessary to have an official guide to visit the actual excavations.
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania is one of the most important paleoanthropological localities in the world; the many sites exposed by the gorge have proven invaluable in furthering understanding of early human evolution. A steep-sided ravine in the Great Rift Valley that stretches across East Africa, it is about 48 km (30 mi) long, and is located in the eastern Serengeti Plains within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the Olbalbal ward located in Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region, about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Laetoli, another important archaeological locality of early human occupation.
The gorge takes its name from the Maasai word which means “the place of the wild sisal” as the East African wild sisal (Sansevieria ehrenbergii) grows abundantly throughout the gorge area. Twenty-five kilometers downstream of Lake Ndutu and Lake Masek, the gorge is the result of up to 90 meters erosion cutting into the sediments of a Pleistocene lake bed. A side gorge, originating from Lemagrut Mountain, joins the main gorge 8 km from the mouth. This side gorge follows the shoreline of a prehistoric lake, rich in fossils and early hominin sites. Periodic flows of volcanic ash from Olmoti and Kerimasi helped to ensure preservation of the fossils in the gorge.
The Museum:
The Olduvai Gorge Site Museum is situated six kilometers from the main road junction where the Zinjanthropus monument stands on the way to Serengeti National Park. The Museum is located at the edge of the Gorge’s bank, overlooking the famous rock castle in the Gorge’s midsection, just at the confluence of the side and mini gorge river valleys. The Museum is located on the rim of the Gorge, 5 kilometers beyond the monument, at the intersection of the main Gorge and the side gorge. It is known to be one of the few onsite museums. This Museum offers extensive archeological and cultural exhibits directly related to the Gorge, as well as research on the Gorge’s history, discoveries, and overall history to the present day.
One old museum was built during the Leakey era and was inherited by the Department of Antiquities in the 1990s. In 2017 a new museum was opened, and today both are now running concurrently with the same mission of highlighting mankind’s unique history in the NCA.
