david korte photographs

Originally part of Serengeti National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area was set aside in 1959 to conserve wildlife, safeguard the interests of indigenous pastorialists and promote tourism.  Ngorongoro crater is one of the most perfectly formed calderas on the planet.  It is located along the rift valley in the highlands of northern Tanzania about 3° south of the equator.  The caldera measures about 12 miles across, the bowl of 100 square miles is ringed by 1,640 foot walls.  Surrounded by forest highlands, the crater floor is  mostly grassland, with lakes, pools and marshes, with the Lerai fever tree forest spilling down from the Southwest slopes.

The crater creates a self-contained ecosystem, and little migration takes place during the fluctuating wet and dry seasons.  Wildibeast, zebras, gazelles, eland, black rhinos, buffalo, elephants, lions, hyaenas, leopards and cheetahs populate the varied habitats between highland forest and crater floor.

More than 60,000 Maasai pastorialists live in the conservation area, tending herds of cattle, sheep and goats, and a few donkeys.  They are allowed to take their livestock to the crater floor during the dry season for salt and water.

Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was built in the 1930s in the highland forest along the rim of the crater with spectacular views across the crater.