What To See
Olduvai Gorge
Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important archaeological sites on earth. The geological strata exposed in the gorge reveal a remarkable record of animal and human evolution from about two million until fifteen thousand years ago. Among the significant finds from Olduvai is the range of stone tool types, the thousands of animal fossils – both extinct and extant species – and the fossil bones of hominids (pre-Homo Sapiens) and early Homo sapiens. Mary & Louis Leakey unearthed here a jawbone in 1959, which has pushed back the beginning of human evolution well past the 1.5 Million year mark. The different kinds of hominids found here show a gradual increase in brain size and in the complexity of their stone tools.