Two museums, both open
The commonest surprise at Olduvai is that there is not one museum but two, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority runs both concurrently. Mary Leakey founded the original in 1970; it passed to the Department of Antiquities in the 1990s. In 2017 the NCAA opened a much larger museum and visitor centre nearby, and kept the old one.
Both sit within the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, above Olduvai Gorge itself.
The 2017 museum
The NCAA places the new museum six kilometres from the main road junction where the Zinjanthropus monument stands on the way to the Serengeti, on the rim of the gorge at the junction of the main gorge and a side gorge, overlooking the rock formation in the gorge’s midsection. It was designed and built in quartzite stone.
What it holds, in the authority’s own listing, is fossils, stone tools of hominid ancestors and skeletons of extinct animals excavated in the gorge, with realistic copies of the most important finds shown after a lecture on the work done here. It also holds replicas of the Laetoli footprints, which is the only way to see that trackway at all, since the original was reburied for its protection.
Beyond the exhibits there is a cultural boma where visitors can explore aspects of Maasai culture, a restaurant, a shop selling local products and books, a community centre, restrooms, outdoor lecture areas where curators give orientation talks, and a covered theatre-like viewing platform looking into the gorge. Guided walks run from here down to the Zinj site, which the NCAA puts at about a kilometre away.
The Mary Leakey museum
The older site is listed separately by the NCAA as the Dr Mary Leakey Living Museum, and it is a different kind of visit. It is the Leakeys’ camp: the authority counts more than eighteen visible objects including houses, artefacts and personal property, and describes it as a chance to see the houses and research facilities Mary and Louis Leakey actually used.
The NCAA gives its distances as about half a kilometre to the Zinj site, two kilometres to the Olduvai Gorge Museum, nine kilometres to the Shifting Sands, 32 kilometres to Nasera Rock and 59 kilometres to Olkarien Gorge. The equivalent distances from the new museum run a kilometre longer in each case.
What to expect
This is a small site museum in a very remote place, not a national collection. The most significant fossils found in the gorge are not held here, and what is displayed is a mixture of genuine material, casts and interpretation. The NCAA is straightforward about that: it describes realistic copies of the most important findings.
The part that consistently does the work is the curator’s talk. The gorge from the rim is an eroded ravine; what makes it comprehensible is somebody explaining which layer is which and what came out of it. Anyone arriving with an hour and no intention of listening to the lecture will get less out of the stop than the drive to reach it deserves. See museum tours and archaeological tours.
Common questions
Are there really two museums?
Yes. The NCAA states that the original museum founded by Mary Leakey in 1970 and the museum opened in 2017 both run concurrently. They are separate sites about two kilometres apart.
Can you see the Laetoli footprints here?
Only as replicas. The original trackway at Laetoli was reburied to protect it and is not open to visitors. The Olduvai museum holds copies.
Is there food at the site?
The NCAA lists a restaurant at the 2017 museum along with a shop and restrooms. It publishes no opening hours, so treat lunch there as an expectation rather than a plan.