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.Olduvai Gorge
The conservation area also protects Olduvai
Gorge, situated in the plains area. It is considered the seat of
humanity after the discovery of the earliest known specimens of
modern humans, Homo habilis as well as the early humans,
Paranthropus boisei.
The Olduvai Gorge or Oldupai Gorge is a steep-sided ravine in
the Great Rift Valley, which stretches along eastern Africa.
Olduvai is in the eastern Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania
and is about thirty miles long. It lies in the rain shadow of
the Ngorongoro highlands and is the driest part of the region.
The gorge is named after the Maasai word for the wild sisal
plant, Sansevieria ehrenbergii, commonly called Oldupaai.
It is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world
and research there has been instrumental in furthering
understanding of early human evolution. Excavation work there
was pioneered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s and is
continued today by their family. Some believe that millions of
years ago, the site was that of a large lake, the shores of
which were covered with successive deposits of volcanic ash.
Around 500,000 years ago seismic activity diverted a nearby
stream which began to cut down into the sediments, revealing
seven main layers in the walls of the gorge.
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