Ngorongoro Crater

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Ngorongoro Crater is a huge volcanic bowl in northern Tanzania, part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It is a caldera, a wide crater left when a giant volcano collapsed in on itself about 2 to 3 million years ago. The floor covers about 260 square kilometres, and steep walls about 610 metres high ring it like a natural fence.

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At a glance

Country: Tanzania
Location: Arusha Region, Tanzania
Height: 610 m
Type: Volcano

Quick answers

Where is Ngorongoro Crater?

Ngorongoro Crater is in Arusha Region, Tanzania.

How tall is Ngorongoro Crater?

Ngorongoro Crater is about 610 m tall.

One of the world's largest intact volcanic calderas, a natural enclosure teeming with wildlife.

Inside live roughly 25,000 large animals, mostly hoofed grazers such as wildebeest, zebras and gazelles, along with lions, hippos and endangered black rhinos. The area became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979 and is also home to Maasai herders, so people and wildlife share the land.

How the crater formed

Long ago a very large volcano stood here. When its magma emptied out, the top collapsed and left a big bowl. Today it is described as one of the largest inactive, unbroken and unfilled calderas in the world. The crater is not full of water, so animals can roam its grassy floor, around a lake in the middle.

Wildlife and people

The crater has about 7,000 blue wildebeest and thousands of zebras and gazelles, and a famously dense lion population. Black rhinos are rare, with about 55 counted in 2018, up from 13 in 1993. The Maasai are herders who have lived in the area for generations, but rules about land use and moves to new homes have led to disputes.

Olduvai Gorge

The same conservation area includes Olduvai Gorge, a 50-kilometre canyon. Digs there by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s found early human relatives, including Homo habilis. This is why UNESCO added cultural status in 2010.

Fun facts

The crater floor is about 260 square kilometres, and its walls are around 610 metres high.
About 25,000 large animals live inside the crater.
Black rhinos in the crater rose from 13 in 1993 to about 55 in 2018.
Nearby Olduvai Gorge helped scientists learn about early human ancestors.