Tourism in Olduvai Gorge & Laetoli - Africa Natural Tours ( africanaturaltours.com )
Tourism in Olduvai Gorge &
Laetoli: Africa Natural Tours
AFRICA
NATURAL TOURS (The best tour company in Tanzania)
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Over
the last thirty years or so, it has become increasingly apparent that Africa is
probably the "Cradle of Mankind". From Africa they spread out to
populate the rest of Earth. Remains of the earliest humans were found in
Oldupai Gorge.
Olduvai
Gorge is a site in Tanzania that holds the earliest evidence of the existence
of human ancestors. Paleoanthropologists have found hundreds of fossilized
bones and stone tools in the area dating back millions of years, leading them
to conclude that humans evolved in Africa.
Olduvai
is a misspelling of Oldupai, a Maasai word for a wild sisal plant that grows in
the area. The gorge is located in the Great Rift Valley, between the Ngorongoro
Crater and the Serengeti National Park. It is 30 miles from Laetoli, another
fossil-rich area. Olduvai Gorge was formed about 30,000 years ago, the result
of aggressive geological activity and streams.
The
steep ravine is about 30 miles (48.2 km) long and 295 feet (89.9 meters) deep,
not quite large enough to be classified as a canyon. A river cuts through
several layers to form four individual beds, with the oldest estimated at about
2 million years old.
At
Laetoli, west of Ngorongoro Crater, hominid footprints are preserved in
volcanic rock 3.6 million years old and represent some of the earliest signs of
mankind in the world. Three separate tracks of a small-brained upright walking
early hominid. Australopithecus afarensis, a creature about 1.2 to 1.4 meters
high, were found. Imprints of these are displayed in the Oldupai museum.
More
advanced descendants of Laetoli’s hominids were found further north, buried in
the layers of the 100 meters deep Oldupai Gorge. Excavations, mainly by the
archaeologist Louis and Mary Leakey, yielded four different kinds of hominid,
showing gradual increases in brain size and in the complexity of their stone
tools. The first skull of Zinjanthropus, commonly known as ‘Nutcracker Man’ who
lived about 1.75 million years ago, was found here. The most important find
include Home habilis, Zinjathropus and the Laetoli footprints.
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