Isimila Stone Age Site

An otherworldly canyon of eroded pillars where stone tools from 60,000 years ago lie scattered on the ground.

About twenty kilometres south of Iringa, on the Mbeya road, Isimila is two things at once: an open-air Stone Age site where hand axes and cleavers, made by Homo erectus or early Homo sapiens, still lie on the surface of the ground; and a small canyon of strange eroded sandstone pillars that look like a set from another planet. A small site museum keeps a few of the better tools and bones, including a fossilised hippo skull, and a guide will walk you down into the gully.

The pillars are reached on foot from the small visitor centre on the main road; the walk is gentle but exposed and very hot at midday. Bring water and a hat. Entry is around US$10 for foreigners; pay the official rate at the gate.

things to do sight
A story
When the British archaeologist Howard Hawkes excavated here in the 1950s he found so many hand axes lying in situ that the site was interpreted as an Acheulean butchery and tool-making camp. Some pieces are still where they fell. The carved sandstone pillars in the gully are a separate, much later, natural feature — created by water eroding around harder cores.