The rim
Wide views.
Faustinmutua — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tall Black — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Njihiagk — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Theo Matundura — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Theo Matundura — CC BY-SA 4.0
Menengai Crater is a massive shield volcano with one of the largest calderas in the world, in Kenya's Great Rift Valley, about 10 km north of the city of Nakuru. It is the largest volcanic caldera in Kenya and the second largest in Africa. The volcano formed about 200,000 years ago, and its great 12-by-8 km caldera formed about 8,000 years ago. Its floor is covered with many later lava flows, a thick mass of volcanic boulders and hard-to-reach ridges. Menengai is considered one of the best-preserved calderas of its type in the world, and its volcanic soil enriches the farmland around it. Volcanic activity continues, and a geothermal power project is under way there. From the grassy rim the view opens over a wide, deep basin covered in dark lava flows and green scrub, ringed by steep walls, stretching away to distant hills. Visitors stand at viewpoints on the rim, walk the trails around it, and some come for sunrise. It makes a short trip from Nakuru, together with nearby Lake Nakuru.
Wide views.
Dark.
From the rim.
North of Nakuru, Kenya
One to four hours.
Lake Nakuru.