Tanzania: big bowl

The Ngorongoro Crater is an anomaly. The world’s biggest unbroken caldera, 300sq km in size, it sits in the Ngorongoro Highlands like a gigantic bowl gently nestled among the mountains. Ngorongoro is Maa (the Maasai language) for “bowl”.

A sort of Noah’s Ark, teeming with every kind of wildlife, the Crater is its own microcosm of East Africa, with a swamp, a forest and  most of all, savannah. Most striking, though, is the fact that the bottom of the caldera is a completely flat and open field.

Ngorongoro crater

With so many predators and prey in full view of one another, the Ngorongoro Crater feels a bit like an ancient battle field with enemy armies continuously maneuvering around one another.