Ngorongoro Crater - Tanzania's safari dreamland

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	Crater is a World Heritage Site Condé Nast accolade Lodge resembles Maasai village 3 discreet camps with magical suites Home of up to 30 000 animals "Big five" Multitudes of zebra and wildebeest Africa's largest black-maned lions Game drives into Crater Walks on Crater rim Trips to Olduvai Gorge Maasai cultural village visit Trips to "Shifting Sands", Lake Eyasi Trip to extinct volcano of Empakaai

Three million years ago, Ngorongoro, one of the highest peaks in Africa, towered alongside Kilimanjaro in northern Tanzania. Our earliest ancestors witnessed the restless volcano's collapse, forming what is today the world's largest intact caldera (likened to a giant soup bowl with a flat base and steep sides.) Today, Ngorongoro remains a place of drama and beauty - the most remarkable wildlife haven on our planet.

High on the south-western rim stands Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, commanding views of this natural wonder that often moves onlookers to reverential awe. Authoritative African guide book writer, Philip Briggs, wrote that the Crater Lodge was a contender for the accolade of "the finest safari lodge in Africa" - weighty praise indeed.

The Crater is an African Eden, teeming with 30 000 wild animals, including black rhino, elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, cheetah, hyena, zebra, wildebeest, warthog, hippo, Thomson's gazelle, eland and reedbuck. The gigantic depression is a 12-mile (19km) wide volcanic crater, ringed with towering walls and sheltering forests, grasslands, fresh springs and a large lake. The lodge lies within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), which covers more than 8 000km².

In the conservation area, 42 000 Maasai live and farm in harmony with wild and dangerous animals. The area also has a special place in the heart of African conservationists: On the rim of the crater stands a simple memorial. It commemorates Michael Grzimek, who died here in 1959 while filming the epic African documentary, "Serengeti Shall Not Die". The inscription reads simply: "he gave all

he possessed for the wild animals of Africa, including his life."


	Condé Nast – Top New Hotel of the World (1998) Crater is a Designated World Heritage Site