About the park
Serengeti National Park: 14,763 km² of migration country
Tanzania's best-known park covers 14,763 km² between the Ngorongoro highlands, Lake Victoria and the Kenyan border, and the migration that defines it does not stop at the boundary. Here is how the park is laid out, how it came to have its present shape, and who runs it.
If you only want the answer
Serengeti National Park covers 14,763 km² of northern Tanzania, the core of a 30,000 km² ecosystem that runs into Kenya's Masai Mara. It was a game reserve from 1929, a national park from 1951 and took its present shape in 1959, when the Ngorongoro highlands were split off. TANAPA runs it, and its fees have been frozen at the 2023/24 dollar rates.
How big is Serengeti National Park?
The park covers 14,763 km², the figure in both TANAPA's park record and UNESCO's World Heritage listing (1,476,300 ha). You will also see 14,750, 15,000 and 12,950 km² in circulation; the last is an older figure, and 30,000 km² is the whole ecosystem across Tanzania and Kenya, which TANAPA describes as 'a 30,000 square kilometer area'.
The park sits in TANAPA's Western Zone, in the Mara and Simiyu regions, and is only the core of that ecosystem. Around it lie the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the south-east, Maswa Game Reserve to the south, the Grumeti and Ikorongo Game Reserves on the north-western side, Loliondo to the east, and the Masai Mara National Reserve across the border in Kenya. UNESCO's own text swaps the compass points for Grumeti and Loliondo; the map is the other way round.
The zones visitors use
TANAPA publishes no visitor zoning, but the industry divides the park the same way everywhere, and the airline timetables follow it. Where you stay decides what you see in a given month, because the herds move through the zones in turn.
| Zone | Main places | Airstrip | Best known for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central: Seronera | Seronera Valley, Retima hippo pool, Moru, Simba and Gol kopjes | Seronera | Resident predators all year; the busiest area |
| Western Corridor | Grumeti and Mbalageti rivers, Kirawira, Ndabaka | Grumeti (Kirawira) | Herds and Grumeti crossings, May to July |
| North: Lobo and the Mara | Lobo kopjes, Bologonja, Kogatende, the Lamai Wedge | Lobo, Kogatende, Lamai | Mara River crossings, July to October |
| South and south-east plains | Naabi Hill, Gol Kopjes, Kusini; Ndutu just outside, in the NCA | Serengeti South | Calving, January to March |
A short history
TANAPA's own record says the park was 'established in 1959' and Wikipedia says 1940. Both describe real steps: 1940 a protected-area status, 1959 the Ordinance under which today's park exists. The national park itself dates from 1951.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1929 | The Tanganyika government creates a Serengeti game reserve |
| 1951 | Made Tanganyika's first national park, then including the Ngorongoro highlands |
| 1959 | Re-gazetted under the National Parks Ordinance (Cap. 412): the Ngorongoro highlands become a separate multiple-use area and the park is extended north to the Kenyan border |
| 1966 | Serengeti Research Institute founded at Seronera; the Serengeti Lion Project begins |
| 1981 | Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site |
| 2014 | The East African Court of Justice declares a paved road across the park unlawful and bars Tanzania from building one |
Who runs the Serengeti, and what changed in 2025
Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), headquartered in Arusha, manages the park under the National Parks Ordinance of 1959. In March 2025 the government froze park fee increases for 12 months, and TANAPA's rates for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 are still the 2023/24 dollar figures. Trade press reported in May 2025 that from the 2025/26 financial year TANAPA and the Ngorongoro authority keep and reinvest the fees they collect, reversing a 2020 arrangement that sent them to central government.
For a visitor that means two authorities on one trip. The road from Arusha crosses the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, run by the NCAA with its own permits, before it reaches TANAPA's Naabi Hill Gate. Inside the park the roads remain gravel and earth, and no paved road crosses it.
Sources
- TANAPA park record for Serengeti (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- UNESCO World Heritage List: Serengeti National Park, via Wayback Machine (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- TANAPA Northern Zone Quick Reference, October 2024 (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- East African Court of Justice, Reference No. 9 of 2010, judgment of 20 June 2014 (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- Tourism Update: Tanzania freezes fees, unlocks park funds, 26 May 2025 (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- EBSCO Research Starters: Serengeti Game Reserve Is Created (checked 6 Oct 2026)