Serengeti National Park
Serengeti National Park Overview
The Serengeti National Park is East Africa’s premier wildlife destination, comprising nearly 15,000 square kilometers of sprawling wilderness. The park is best known as the home to the annual Great Migration of more than two million wildebeest and zebra, which draws visitors from across the globe to witness one of nature’s last truly awe-inspiring spectacles. The Serengeti is also a place where secretive leopards prowl in the shadows of riverine forests and roving lions patrol fiercely contested territories from one horizon to the next. In fact, the high concentration of predator populations is one of the Serengeti’s biggest draws. But how much do you really know about Tanzania’s most famous national park?
- Northern Circuit
- 14,763 km2 (5,700 sq mi)
- Local Guide
Things to Do in Serengeti National Park
The Serengeti’s name is derived from the Maa word siringet, which the Maasai coined to refer to the endless plains in this part of Tanzania. You can expect to see wide-open savanna here, dotted with acacia trees, winding rivers, and large granite outcroppings known locally as kopjes. These boundless plains experience alternating periods of drought and deluge, with two distinct rainy seasons occurring from March to May and November to December. All told, the Serengeti actually forms part of a continuous ecosystem of unimaginable size, transitioning seamlessly into the highlands of Ngorongoro in the south and Kenya’s Maasai Mara in the north. Across the length and breadth of this terrain, the park ranges from an altitude of just 920 meters to the comparatively lofty heights of 1850 meters.
