Where is Olduvai Gorge? Olduvai Gorge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site situated in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in the eastern Serengeti environment. The largest yearly wildebeest migration in the world is known to occur in Northern Tanzania’s Serengeti Plains. The Olduvai Gorge is roughly thirty miles (48 km) long. On the side of the ravine is a museum where guests can view exhibits of fossil excavation findings and learn more about the valley and its environs. A second hall features information about another of Mary Leakey’s findings, the Laetoli fossilised footprints path, which lies 45km (28 miles) south of Olduvai Gorge. One hall is devoted to the Leakey family.
Olduvai Gorge
An incredibly rich archaeological site, Olduvai Gorge has preserved one of the best records of human history, spanning almost two million years. Based on the discovery of hundreds of fossilised bones and stone tools in the region that date back millions of years, paleoanthropologists have come to the conclusion that humans originated in Africa. Oldupai, a Maasai term for a local wild sisal plant, is misspelt as Olduvai. Between the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater, in the Great Rift Valley, lies the gorge. Another region rich in fossils, Laetoli, is 30 miles away. Aggressive geological action and streams created the Olduvai Gorge around 30,000 years ago.
Numerous fossilised humans, animals, and stone artefacts in a well-dated stratigraphic succession have been found at the site. Evolutionary changes in human shape and stone tool technology can be measured using the number, quality, and geological context of paleontological and archaeological data. Remains of Homo erectus and prehistoric Homo sapiens have been found at the site, together with the holotypes for Paranthropus “Australopithecus” boisei (Zinjanthropus) and Homo habilis, among more than four hominid species (Leakey 1971). Stone tool technology evolved from the Oldowan to the Acheulean, Middle Stone Age, and Later Stone Age industries, and this development is compatible with the hominid record.
The steep gorge is not quite wide enough to be called a canyon, measuring around 30 miles (48.2 km) in length and 295 feet (89.9 meters) in depth. A river slashes through multiple layers to create four distinct beds, the oldest of which is thought to be around 2 million years old.
The site is important because it demonstrates the growing social and developmental complexity of the earliest humans, or hominins, which were primarily demonstrated by their usage and manufacture of stone tools. Evidence of hunting and scavenging before the invention of tools can be seen in the ratio of meat to plant matter in the early hominin diet, as well as in the presence of gnaw marks that appear before cut marks. An indication of growing social interaction and group activity is the gathering of tools and animal remains in one location. All of these elements point to an increase in cognitive abilities at the start of the time when hominids changed their appearance and behaviour to become hominins, or humans.
Our species, Homo sapiens, which is thought to have emerged around 300,000 years ago, is dated to have occupied the site 17,000 years ago. Homo habilis, likely the first early human species, occupied Olduvai Gorge around 1.9 million years ago (mya). A contemporary australopithecine, Paranthropus boisei, followed at 1.8 mya, and Homo erectus at 1.2 mya.
Hominid footprints of Australopithecus afarensis, a small-brained upright walking early hominid that was between 1.2 and 1.4 meters high, were discovered in three distinct tracks at Laetoli, west of Ngorongoro Crater, preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 million years old. These footprints are on display at the Oldupai museum.
Further north, more developed offspring of Laetoli’s hominids were discovered interred in the strata of the Oldupai Gorge, which is 100 meters deep. Four distinct types of hominids were discovered during excavations, mostly conducted by archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey. These discoveries demonstrated a progressive increase in the size of their brains and the sophistication of their stone tools. Here was discovered the earliest skull of Zinjanthropus, also referred to as “Nutcracker Man,” who lived approximately 1.75 million years ago. The Laetoli footprints, Zinjathropus, and Home habilis are the most significant discoveries.
Olduvai Gorge Monument and Museum
The Olduvai Gorge Monument was built in July 2019 at the Olduvai Gorge turnoff from the road that leads from Serengeti National Park to Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is the path taken by safari visitors. At the Tanzanian government’s invitation, paleoanthropologists Nicholas Toth, Kathy Schick, and Jackson Njau developed and constructed the monument to commemorate this significant location and draw tourists to the gorge and its recently opened museum. The monument is made up of two enormous models of extinct skulls that are set atop a sizable pedestal, with an educational plaque affixed to the pedestal’s side. The fossilised skulls are those of two modern species that were initially found at Olduvai Gorge: Paranthropus boisei and Homo habilis.
The renowned Tanzanian artist Festo Kijo was commissioned by Schick, Toth, Njau, and Joshua Mwankunda (NCAA Cultural Heritage Manager) to make the two enormous concrete skulls. Kijo modelled them using life-size fossil castings that the researchers had provided. Each of Kijo’s enormous models is six feet tall and weighs five thousand pounds. In collaboration with the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA), the Stone Age Institute and the John Templeton Foundation provided funding for the monument project.
The Olduvai Gorge Museum is situated on the gorge’s rim at the intersection of the main and side gorges, 5 kilometres past the monument. The gorge and its lengthy history are the subject of educational exhibitions in one of Africa’s largest on-site museums.
The Museum
The stylish new museum overlooking the gorge, which opened in October 2017, is the main attraction of a trip to the Olduvai Gorge. You will also have the opportunity to hear a brief talk given by a local guide while you are there. Discover the site’s history and the diverse types of fossils that may be found here by exploring the museum’s several sections. Discover more about the local hominines and prehistoric mammals, see a facsimile of the nearby Laetoli Footprints, which offer some of the earliest evidence of bipedalism, and speak with a resident expert about the area’s significance and ongoing research. Although there is no time limit and you are free to spend as much time exploring the museum as you like, we discovered that it takes about an hour.
Mary and Louis Leakey found early hominid bones at these locations, and you can drive down into the gorge itself for a nominal tip of about $10 USD. It takes around ten minutes to drive here, and you would normally be here for no more than twenty minutes.
You will be accompanied by a staff member rather than a tour, but the location has an information board. With several ongoing studies focused on Olduvai Gorge, it is also occasionally feasible to visit active dig sites. During the dry season, which runs from June to October, teams of researchers usually visit, so you can have the opportunity to speak with the scientists and learn about the most recent discoveries to emerge from the gorge.
An interesting phenomenon is a moving sand dune, which is 30 minutes away by car from Olduvai. This dune is made of fine volcanic ash, which has a high iron content and is therefore very magnetic. This indicates that the dune holds together and travels across the terrain gradually as a single entity. After monitoring the dune’s movement over time, researchers discovered that it moves about 10 meters year due to the predominant wind.
