{"id":84820,"date":"2025-01-03T00:35:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T00:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diwakasafaris.com\/ngorongoro-crater\/"},"modified":"2025-01-03T00:35:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T00:35:51","slug":"ngorongoro-crater","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/migration.diwakasafaris.com\/en-ca\/tanzania-destinations\/ngorongoro-crater\/","title":{"rendered":"Ngorongoro Crater"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ngorongoro Crater<\/h1>

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area or NCA is a conservation area situated 180 km (112 miles) west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania. The conservation area is administered by the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority, an arm of the Tanzanian government, and its boundaries follow the boundary of the Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District. It covers an area of 8,288 km\u00b2 (3,200 square miles) – about the size of Crete.<\/p>

The Ngorongoro Crater is within the area and is the world’s largest volcanic caldera. Based on fossil evidence found at the Olduvai Gorge, it is known that various hominid species have occupied the area for 3 million years. Hunter gatherers were replaced by pastorialists a few thousand years ago. The Mbulu came to the area about 2,000 years ago, and were joined by the Datooga around the year 1700. Both groups were driven from the area by the Maasai in the 1800s.<\/p>

Massive fig trees in the northwest of the Lerai Forest are sacred to the Maasai and Datooga people. Some of them may have been planted on the grave of a Datago leader who died in battle with the Maasai around 1840. No Europeans are known to have set foot in the Crater until 1892, when it was visited by Dr. Oscar Baumann. Two German brothers farmed in the Crater until the outbreak of World War I, after leasing the land from the German colonial administration then in control of East Africa. Dr. Baumann shot three rhinos while camped in the crater, and the German brothers regularly organized shooting parties to entertain their German friends. They also attempted to drive the wildebeest herds out of the crater. The Ngorongoro area originally was part of the Serengeti National Park when it was created by the British in 1951. Maasai continued to live in the newly created park until 1959, when repeated conflicts with park authorities over land use led the British to evict them to the newly declared Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority is the governing body regulating use and access to the NCA.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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