DAR ES SALAAM, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- A state-of-the-art museum aimed at promoting archaeological sites for tourists will soon be opened at the Olduvai Gorge, a site in Tanzania that holds the earliest evidence of the existence of human ancestors, an official said on Sunday.
Joyce Mgaya, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) public relations manager, said the new facility will be officially opened on October 3, this year.
Mgaya said the new museum will be opened by Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan. However, Mgaya declined to reveal the cost of the construction of the new museum whose construction started in 2013.
Paleoanthropologists have found hundreds of fossilized bones and stone tools in the Olduvai Gorge dating back millions of years, leading them to conclude that humans evolved in Africa.
The construction of the museum was part of deliberate measures taken and aimed to promote the archaeological sites as among the major tourists' attractions in the world acclaimed Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), she said.
The facility has been constructed close to the old museum which is too small to accommodate hundreds of visitors to the site during the tourism peak season and not well equipped, said Mgaya.
Mgaya said the new museum was part of a bigger project to upgrade the hominid (early man) sites in the area in order to attract more visitors and that it would be well equipped of vital information.
She said it was part of a wider project which will also include Laetoli footprints and geopark project.
Laetoli, some 60 kilometers from Olduvai, is the home of the footprints of human ancestors experts say roamed that part of the country in pre-historic times. It was discovered in 1976.
Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge were discovered by Mary and Louis Leakey in the 1950s and 1960s, transforming the remote landscapes west of the Ngorongoro highlands into world famous areas of early man evolution studies and tourism.
NCA chief conservator Freddy Manongi said last month the historical and hominid sites were now becoming important areas for revenue collection due to the rising number of visitors. Enditem
