Arusha Activities

Mined only in Tanzania, the beautiful blue December birthstone, known as tanzanite, is a unique souvenir of your East African adventure and a must-have in any jewellery lover’s collection. The Tanzanite Experience is a 1 to 2-hour tour that introduces the history of this magnificent mineral, including how it was discovered and first mined.

You will enjoy the opportunity to see for yourself how each precious gem is graded and cut. Savour the opportunity to ogle tanzanite up close and handle rough and polished stones. Once you have a true appreciation of this gem, you can spoil yourself by purchasing a genuine, well cut and certified tanzanite piece at a charming boutique store. The Tanzanite Experience boutiques are brimming with beautiful displays dedicated to the fascinating blue violet gemstone.

It is said that tanzanite is “1,000 times rarer than diamonds” and, found at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, is incredibly exclusive to Tanzania. Exhibiting magnificent blue and violet hues, tanzanite was first discovered in 1967. World famous New York jewellers “Tiffany & Co”, declared it “the most beautiful blue stone to be discovered in 2,000 years”, and named it Tanzanite. A must have vibrant blue gem for your bejewelled trinket box.

The spectacular landscape of northern Tanzania, where Olduvai Gorge is situated, is the product of both abrupt high-energy processes like volcanism and plate tectonics and the slower low-energy processes of weathering and erosion operating together over millions of years. During this time, climate has varied from arid to semi-arid and the vegetation and animal populations both fluctuated with the availability of water. Feedback between climate and topography is particularly important in regions of high relief like the East African Rift System (EARS). The modern topography in northern Tanzania is the summation of the interaction of geologic, biologic, and hydrologic processes. Over time these processes have sculpted the Earth surface by erosion of high areas and the transport and deposition of this material into low areas.

Olduvai Gorge was created by the erosion of an incised valley draining water from the Ndutu Lake into the OlBalBal depression located at the foot of Ngorongoro. It is part of the Serengeti migratory ecosystem. Erosion has carved its way through different geological strata spanning two million years; from the emergence of the genus Homo to the appearance of our species Homo sapiens. The gorge contains one of the richest and best preserved archaeological and paleontological records for the study of human evolution

The exploratory expeditions to Olduvai undertaken by the Leakeys from 1931 to 1947 had the following goals: establishing a sequence of the evolutionary stages of culture across all beds, surveying the gorge to spot as many sites as possible for future selection for excavation, and obtaining a picture of the geological history of the gorge and its relevance to the climatic history of East Africa. What Leakey referred to as the second stage of research at Olduvai, initiated in the early 1950s, was focused on finding and excavating “living floors” to reconstruct “early man’s” behaviour. Extensive open air excavations were subsequently carried out at BK and SHK in Bed II. In the meantime, survey continued in Bed I, and by 1959, hominin fossils had been discovered at MK and, most spectacularly with the skull of Zinjanthropus (Paranthropus boisei), at FLK.

The discovery of Zinj switched temporarily the Leakey’s attention from the Bed II “living floors” to the Bed I “living floors”, and it yielded significant funding from the Wilkie and Wenner-Gren Foundations and from the National Geographic Society. This marked a crucial moment in East African pale anthropology. For paleontology, it led to the discovery of some of the most important hominin fossils in decades, among them the first Homo habilis. For archaeology, it enabled the prolonged excavation of several sites during the 1960s and the horizontal exposure of some of the most impressive “living floors”. Still today, some of these sites (e.g., FLK Zinj) remain the most extensive open-air excavations carried out in early Pleistocene archaeology in Africa. The abundant, well-preserved fossils and artifacts from these Olduvai Bed I sites have constituted the core of debates about early human behavior for the past half century.

Amboni Caves in are located about 8 km north of Tanga. The Amboni sereis of caves were formed naturally and are believed to have been formed during the Jurassic Age some 150 million years ago, are the most extensive cave system in East Africa. According to researchers the area was under water some 20 million years ago, and it is estimated to extend over an area of 234 square kilometers.

Isimila Stone Age site is an oldest historical Stone Age tool site in Isimila village Iringa region Tanzania. The Isimila site located about 20 km from Iringa town along Iringa Mbeya road where tools stone artifacts and bones found in a dry bed that was once a shallow lake.

The stone tools used by ancient people during the early Stone Age period about 300,000 years ago discovered in 1951 with other fossil bones including those of related to modern giraffe but having much shorter neck and the extinct hippopotamus with unusual periscope like projections.

Isimila stone age site preserves important evidences of early hominids activities dating back to over 60,000 ago the groups of nomadic hunters and collectors who used to go to the shores of an ancient small lake as the place for hunting which is no longer exist.

Isimila central valley consisting of a deep canyon characterized by imposing pinnacles and erosion towers creating an environment of extraordinary charm. The Isimila museum presents the ethnographic historical and archeological material from southern highlands of Tanzania purposely to highlight people’s ingenuity as manifested by material culture showing the technological continuity and innovations.

Engaruka is located to the north of Mto wa Mbu, at about 63 kilometers, towards the road to Oldonyo Lengai and Lake Natron. These ruins are lying at the foot of the rift valley escarpment.

Engaruka is an abandoned system of ruins in the Great Rift Valley in northern Tanzania that is famous for its irrigation and cultivation system. It is considered one of the most important Tanzanian archaeological sites.

Sometime in the 15th century, an Iron Age farmer community with a large continuous village area on the foot slopes of the Rift Valley escarpment, housing several thousand people had involved in irrigation and cultivation system, involving a stone-block canal channeling water from the “Crater Highlands” or a wide steep slope to stone lined cultivation terraces.

The first explorer to record the existence of these ruins was Dr. Gustav Fischer, who passed them on July 5, 1883, and compared them to the tumbled-down walls of ancient castles. Drs Scoeller and Kaiser mentioned the ruins of “Ngaruku” including great stone circles and dams in 1896-97. The first detailed and archaeological investigation was by Hans Reck, in 1913. Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey investigated the site in 1935, but were disappointed by the lack of burial sites.

With an estimated population of less than 2,000 individuals, the Hadzabe are one of the last tribes to stay true to their tribal history. Existing far from the crowds and globalization that inevitably follow tourism, they exist much as they always have.

Men typically hunt and bring home honey to feed their families, while women and children gather fruits, berries, and roots with which to supplement their diet.

The men are particularly adept hunters, and their daring and inventive hunting style is a sight to behold. Using parts harvested from other animals, they cunningly lure and put down game. As this is their only source of food, they are the only tribe permitted to hunt in the Serengeti.

The Hadzabe people live in caves near Lake Eyasi, and their isolation and shrinking numbers have allowed them to avoid the HIV epidemic and other diseases that have spread due to intertribal marriages.

An interesting facet of Hadzabe culture is their language. Believed to have some kind of relation to the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, the Hadzabe language is a distinctive tongue of clicks that is similar to that of the famous Bushmen. Despite this and their similar physical appearances, DNA testing has shown no relation between the two groups.