The Ngorongoro Conservation Area or NCA is a conservation area situated 180 km west of Arusha in the Crater Highlands area of Tanzania.

The conservation area’s boundaries follow the boundary of the Ngorongoro Division of Ngorongoro District. It is 8,288 km² – about the size of Crete.

The main feature of the NCA is the Ngorongoro Crater, which is the world’s largest unbroken volcanic caldera. The crater is 610m deep and the floor is 260km2. The steep sides of the crater mean that it has become a natural enclosure for a very wide variety of wildlife, including most of the species found in East Africa.

Aside from herds of zebra, gazelle and wildebeest, the crater is home to the “big five” of rhinoceros, lion, leopard, elephant and buffalo. The crater plays host to almost every individual species of wildlife in East Africa, and there are an estimated 25,000 animals within the crater. Lake Magadi in the centre of the crater is, like many in the rift valley, a soda lake supporting flocks of flamingo.