Tanzania Destinations, think of the African experience and a kaleidoscope of images springs to mind, herds of zebra, wildebeest and gazelle stretching to the horizon under pearly down skies, a lion stalking through dry grass, a warrior striding into the sunset, white beaches backed by coconut palms swaying in the breeze off a warm sea, a snow capped mountain rising out of the red dust of the plains. All these images reflect the beauty of not simply a great continent but just one country Tanzania.
Basking south of the equator over an area half size of Western Europe, Tanzania is the land of boundless fascinating and diversity. From the vast lakes of the interior to the blue waters of Indian ocean and from the Northern mountains to the southern Ruvuma river the country is the Mosaic of tropical forest, savannah grassland and shimmering lakes containing some of the largest and most beautiful wilderness areas in the world. Tanzania is a modern progressive state with a rich cultural and historical heritage that began almost four million years ago when our primitive ancestors first left the forest and walked upright on to the plains.
Formed by massive earth upheavals of ages past, when the rift valley split east Africa from Mozambique to Ethiopia, the area was already home to an ape-like creature that stood on two legs. This ancient traveler left their left his footprints in Laetoli northern Tanzania to be discovered in 1979 by Mary Leakey, of the famous husband and wife archaeological team. The fossils proved to be the oldest “hominid” tracks so far unearthed.
During excavations twenty years earlier more evidence was discovered to support the views that Tanzania is the cradle of mankind. At nearby Olduvai Gorge fossil remains of Homo habilis, “Handy Man” was dated by Dr. Louis Leakey as 1.75 million years old. He believed that Habilis had the physical attributes and intelligence to make tools and as such was possible direct ancestor of modern man.
This early relative eventually migrated to the whole of East Africa and its descendants centuries later moved to Asia, India, Europe and other parts of the continents as traders, warriors, farmers, craftsmen and explorers. Throughout the ages the intermingled melding the people, their history, language, customs and culture into contemporary Tanzania.
Today Tanzania is united in independence, people are proud of their past with a vision of the bright future and a land still waiting to be discovered by those who dream of seeing the legendary animals of the Serengeti or the famous snow of Kilimanjaro.