Kenya - The African Great Rift Valley - Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site

Olorgesailie Prehistoric Site is located on the floor of the Great Rift Valley between two extinct volcanoes, Mt. Olorgesailie and Oldonyo Esakut to the south-west of Nairobi, Kenya. Olorgesailie area is in a lake basin that existed during the latter part of the middle Pleistocene period, probably between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. Discovered by Louis and Mary Leakey in the 1940s, Olorgesailie was excavated by Glynn Isaac as his dissertation research during the 1960s. Olorgesailie has important evidence that concerns the habits and activities of early prehistoric peoples of the hand axe culture. The site has the highest concentration of hand axes probably compared to any other place in the world. Olorgesailie has excellently preserved biological and cultural evidence about the evolution of man. Human tools are the most prominent of all fossils in the area and the accumulation of tool represents the actual camping places of early men. It shows the evidence of human activity consistently between 1.2 million years to 400,000 years before present. This is evidence that human species had a tropical origin and a higher primate group was confined to this part of the world thus, Olorgesailie gives evidence not only of local importance but also of international significance. Scientifically, the site also has much to do with archaeological, palaeontological and geological significance.