The small Oldupai Museum on the rim of Oldupai Gorge stands on one of the most significant archaeological sites on earth. It was here in 1959 that Mary Leakey discovered a 1.8-million-year-old ape-like skull from an early hominin (human-like) now known as Australopithecus boisei . This discovery, along with fossils of over 60 early hominids (including Homo habilis and Homo erectus ) forever changed the way we understand the dawn of human history.
The museum documents the foundation of the gorge, fossil finds and the legacy of Mary Leakey and her husband, Louis. You're allowed to visit the museum on your own (a series of explanatory panels guide you through the exhibits), whereafter a guide will give a short lecture. The guide will then take you down into the gorge (where international archaeological teams are still at work) or out to the shifting sands , a 9m-high, 100m-long black dune of volcanic ash that has blown across the plain from Ol Doinyo Lengai.
You'll need a minimum of 45 minutes to do the museum justice and listen to the lecture, more if you go down into the gorge or visit the shifting sands. And yes, you did read that entrance fee correctly – the admission fee increased ninefold overnight with the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen in 2012. It's still worth it.
The turn-off to the museum is 27km northwest of the Seneto descent road, and from the turn-off it's a further 5.5km along a rutted track to the museum.
