Very humble entrance gate to the Cradle of Man. Today, it is about as remote as anywhere on the planet….. (That is Ishmail our guide walking from the door—interesting name under the circumstances.)
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No big Disney-like neon signs here to light the path to the Cradle of Man….
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So just what were Louis and Mary Leakey doing out there in the wilderness for all those months back in the 1950s?
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Here is a cast of a human footprint originally placed in volcanic ash…. When? See the next photo.
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This plaster cast is of footprints that were found in volcanic ash that had solidified some 3.6 million years ago. Signs of 3 of the earliest people found anywhere in the world. One of the people was more or less walking in the footsteps of the other. 2 adult males and one adult women (you can just see the artist’s rendering in the photo). The larger of the adults was about 3 ½ feet tall. The footprints are very, very, similar to those we would leave on the beach today. Humbling….
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A view of the Gorge….. where our history as humans is thought to have begun, hard to grasp…..
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Another view of the Gorge….. when our history began, millions of years ago, they think that this was a verdant forest…..
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The drive from the Ngorongoro Crater to the Oldupai Gorge…. stark, barren, very few people, and vast landscapes.
That is a walled Maasi village in the center of the photo….. and the neighborhood IS as inhospitable as it looks, even as it is stunning…..
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A meeting of the village elders just outside the village walls…..
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