Olduvai Gorge: cradle of man
Olduvai is actually a misspelling of the Maasai word 'oldupai', the name for the wild sisal plant. It's in this valley that Louis and Mary Leakey discovered the skull of the Australopithecus boisei, an early ancestor of man that lived in the area some 1.75 million years ago.
Olduvai Gorge is 50 kms long and 90 meters deep |
In 1978 the archeologists made the discovery of a lifetime when they unearthed the ancient footsteps of three hominids at Laetoli. The Laetoli creatures -there were three of them- walked upright, and they were small, 1.20 to 1.40 meters at most. Two days after their passing, the volcano Sadiman erupted and covered their tracks with a thick layer of ash, preserving their footsteps for 3.6 million years.
The footsteps have recently been reburied to preserve them, but a cast can be admired in the small museum next to the gorge.
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