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 Tanzanian site where the earliest evidence of human ancestors can be found. Hundreds of millions-old fossilized bones and stone tools have been discovered in the area by paleoanthropologists. This leads them to believe that humans originated in Africa.

Oldupai, a Maasai word for a wild sisal plant that grows in the area, is misspelled as Olduvai. The gorge is located between the Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti National Park in the Great Rift Valley. Laetoli, another fossil-rich area, is 30 miles away. The Olduvai Gorge was formed about 30,000 years ago by violent geological activity and streams.

The steep ravine is about 30 miles (48.2 kilometers) long and 295 feet (89.9 meters) deep, but it’s not quite a canyon. The oldest of the four beds could be as old as 2 million years. To get to it, the river has to cut through several layers.

Hominid footprints are preserved in volcanic rock 3.6 million years old at Laetoli, west of the Ngorongoro Crater, and represent some of the world’s earliest signs of mankind. Three distinct tracks of an upright walking early hominid with a small brain. Australopithecus afarensis was discovered, a 1.2 to 1.4 meter tall creature. These can be seen in the Oldupai museum as imprints.

Further north, in the layers of the 100-meter-deep Oldupai Gorge, more advanced descendants of Laetoli’s hominids were discovered. Excavations led primarily by archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey resulted in the discovery of four different types of hominids, each with a progressive increase in brain size and the complexity of their stone tools. Here was discovered the first skull of Zinjanthropus, also known as “Nutcracker Man,” who lived about 1.75 million years ago. Homer habilis, Zinjathropus, and the Laetoli footprints are among the most important discoveries.