A day inside the world's great natural amphitheater
The Ngorongoro Crater is the largest unbroken, inactive volcanic caldera in the world. Its floor covers about 260 square kilometers and is ringed by walls up to 600 meters high. Because the walls keep much of the wildlife inside, animal numbers stay high throughout the year.
The crater is one of Tanzania's most dependable places to see the endangered black rhino. Lions, elephants, buffalo, hyenas and huge herds of zebra and wildebeest share the floor, so many visitors see most or all of the Big Five in a single day.
You don't sleep on the crater floor. Lodges and camps sit on the rim or in the nearby highlands, and you drive down early in the morning, when it is cool and the animals are most active. Most visits are a full day, with a picnic lunch by one of the crater's lakes.
The crater is rewarding in every season, because its wildlife does not scatter with the rains. The dry months from June to September simply make driving and photography easier.
Ngorongoro lies on the road between Arusha and the Serengeti, so it slots naturally into almost every northern safari.
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