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TANZANIA TOURIST BOARD
NEWS BRIEFS Tanzania Gains Seventh
World Heritage Site The
Kondoa Rock Art Site in Tanzania has just been
named as a World Heritage Site by the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) along with four other sites
in Africa. This site will be the seventh
World Heritage Site existing in Tanzania. The
other sites are: Kilimanjaro National Park,
Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Ruins of Kilwa
Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara, Serengeti
National Park, Selous Game Reserve and Stone Town,
Zanzibar. Kondoa
Rock Art Sites in Dodoma Region, on the eastern
slopes of the Maasai escarpment bordering the Great
Rift Valley are natural rock shelters, overhanging
slabs of sedimentary rocks fragmented by rift
faults, whose vertical planes have been used for
rock paintings over at least two millennia. The
spectacular collection of images from over 150
shelters over 2,336 km2, many with high artistic
value, displays sequences that provide a unique
testimony to the changing socio-economic base of
the area from hunter-gatherer to agro-pastoralist
societies, and the beliefs and ideas associated
with them. Some of the shelters are still
considered to have ritual associations with the
people who live nearby reflecting their beliefs,
rituals and cosmological traditions. New Endangered Fish
Species Found on Tanzania's Mafia
Island New
endangered fish species have been discovered on the
beautiful island of Mafia, off the coast of
mainland Tanzania on the Indian Ocean. This
new discovery increases the number of the world's
threatened species found in Tanzania. Marine
experts say that "whale-shark" one of these rare
fish species was found in the country's waters some
two months ago. Whale-shark is mostly found
in deep sea, about 200 meters below the water
surface. What makes this discovery so unique
is that the fish were found in shallow waters ion
Mafia. Mafia Island and Mnazi Bay Marine
Parks are amongst Tanzania's largest marine
protected areas. Other protected reserves are
Mbudya, Pangani and Bongoyo Islands. Other
endangered species (Dugong and Coelacanth) were
found in the coastal areas three years ago.
Coelacanth, which has been re-discovered in some
parts of the world after over 64 million years of
apparent extinction was found in the coastal areas
of Tanga, Kilwa, Lindi and Pangani. John
Mapepele, a Senior Information Officer of Marine
Parks and Reserves Unit of the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Tourism said the country is also
endowed with a variety of the world's threatened
fish species &endash; tuna, barracuda, turtles and
others. Tanzania is so rich in marine sources and
one can find dolphins and whales as well as sea
urchins, fruit-bats, starfish and octopuses.
Mapapele said the Ministry wants to put more
emphasis on ecotourism in an effort to attract more
tourists. Tanzania Tourist Board/
USA New Email Address The
Tanzania Tourist Board in the U.S. has a new e-mail
address for all inquiries: For more
information on Tanzania visit
www.tanzaniatouristboard.com; |
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