Lake Manyara National Park is about two hours west of Arusha on the road leading to the Ngorogoro Conservation Area and the Serengeti.

On the approach to the park is the village of Mto wa Mbu, which means “mosquito river” in Swahili. Mto wa Mbu was founded in the 1940 as a stop over for the caravans of porters carrying goods for the early hunters in the interior and wildness parts of Manyara. The village is the only one in Tanzania where all 120 of the countries tribes live together peacefully.

Lake Manyara National park is quite small – only about 330 square kilometers – and the lake itself occupies about 2/3 of this area. It is located on the Great East African Rift Valley, where fossil evidence suggests homo sapiens originated.

Lake Manyara was the first park used by biologists for the study of elephants due to the large numbers that can be found here. On a lucky day you will spot a lion in a tree – Lake Manyara is where they were first documented doing this. And for bird watchers, Lake Manyara is a paradise -- during the raining season many local and migratory bird species congregate around the shallow rivers which empty into the lake.

Baboons are plentiful here, eating fruit in the many fruit bearing trees along the lake shore. Cape buffalo graze on the good green grasses and giraffe eat from the many acacia trees in the park. -- Shaaban.

Please follow this link to the site of the Lake Manyara National Park for additional information