The Serengeti covers a vast stretch of northern Tanzania — grassy plains in the south, forest along the rivers in the west, and rocky outcrops in the north. Its name comes from a Maasai word meaning roughly “the land that runs on forever,” and it still feels that way when you watch the sun rise over the plains.
The park has been protected since 1940 and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.
It’s the only place in Africa where you can still see a mass migration of land animals on this scale. Each year, huge herds move in a big loop: calves are born on the southern plains around January to March, the herds then head north and west, cross the rivers between July and October, and come back south again with the rains. The Serengeti also has more lions than anywhere else in Africa, plus leopard, cheetah, elephant, buffalo, and over 500 kinds of birds.