| Naturalists
have written volumes in praise of the pristine beauty of Tanzania
and the need to preserve the game sanctuaries, and the historical
sites, some dating as far back as two million years ago. With
over a quarter of its total area of 937,000 sq km set aside
for game parks and reserves, Tanzania boasts some of the finest
wildlife sanctuaries in the world. Serengeti, Ngorongoro,
Tarangire, Lake Manyara, Mount Kilimanjaro, Mikumi, Ruaha
and the Selous are the ultimate sites commonly appearing in
safari plans.
There are other areas of stunning beauty like the Mkomazi
Game Reserve, Amboni Caves, the National Parks of Udzungwa
Mountains, Katavi, Mahale and Gombe Stream, which rarely feature
in safari itineraries. This is simply because the infrastructure
and facilities in those areas are not as developed.
These are the safari sites of the future, and Tanzania has
many such virgin nature reserves. Tanzania is a melange of
different cultures, emanating from the interaction of the
early visitors on the East African coast with the local population.
These include the native Bushmen who inhabited the Great Rift
Valley with their intriguing rock paintings in Kondoa Irangi,
the Nilo Hamitics and Bantu tribes, the early far east traders
from China and India, the Arabs from the Persian Gulf, the
Portuguese explorers, and more recently the Germans and the
British.
There are more than 120 tribes in Tanzania, reflecting a rich
cultural diversity. Kiswahili is the national language spoken
by all tribes in Tanzania, and used widely in other eastern
and central African countries.
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for a large map
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