Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

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Olduvai Gorge is an archaeological site located in the eastern Serengeti Plains, northern Tanzania within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. The gorge is a very steep sided ravine roughly 50 km long and 90 m deep. Exposed deposits show rich fossil fauna, many hominid remains and items belonging to one of the oldest stone tool technologies, called Olduwan. The time span of the objects recovered dates from 2,100,000 to 15,000 years ago. Louis and Mary Leakey first found stone tools there in the 1930s. The skull of an early hominid (1.75 million years old), Austalopithecus boisei, was found here, as well as remains of Homo habilis and primitive types of Homo erectus. This simulated natural color ASTER image was acquired on February 1, 2001, covers an area of 35.3 x 37.6 km, and is centered near 2.8 degrees south latitude and 35.1 degrees east longitude.

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Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania Type: (JPG) Size: (1,093,218 bytes) Resolution ( 2,504 x 2,350 )