Lake Manyara National Park

About Lake Manyara National Park

Lake Manyara National Park is a compact but extraordinarily diverse protected area covering approximately 325 square kilometres at the base of the Great Rift Valley escarpment in northern Tanzania, where the dramatic 600-metre cliffs of the escarpment wall drop suddenly to a narrow strip of groundwater forest, open floodplain and the vast shallow expanse of alkaline Lake Manyara stretching to the south. The park is famous for its tree-climbing lions, a behaviour documented here and in only a handful of other locations in Africa alongside one of Africa's densest concentrations of elephants, enormous hippo pools visible from the road, and tens of thousands of flamingos that turn the lake's shallow southern shores brilliant pink. The diverse vegetation zones compressed into a small area also make Manyara one of Tanzania's finest birding destinations with over 400 recorded species. The park is typically visited en route between Arusha and Ngorongoro making it an accessible and rewarding half-day safari stop.