Established in 1964, Mikumi National Park is Tanzania’s fourth-largest national park and serves as the northern gateway to the Southern Safari Circuit. The park spans 3,230 square kilometers of diverse landscapes, bordered to the east by the Uluguru Mountains and to the southwest by the Rubeho and Lumango Mountains. It shares a seamless, unfenced border with the northern wilderness of Nyerere National Park (formerly Selous Game Reserve), allowing animals to migrate freely between ecosystems along the Mkata River corridor.

The crown jewel of Mikumi is the Mkata Floodplain, an open grass savannah often compared to the iconic plains of the Serengeti. The landscape transitions from open grasslands and baobab-studded savannahs to dense miombo woodlands and acacia thickets. The Mkata Basin supports impressive numbers of wildlife, including heavy herds of Cape buffalo, wildebeest, plains zebra, and impala, which in turn sustain healthy lion prides, leopards, and spotted hyenas. Mikumi is also a vital sanctuary for the yellow baboon and the rare Liechtenstein’s hartebeest. Bisected by the paved A7 highway connecting Dar es Salaam to Zambia, Mikumi holds a special place in Tanzanian conservation history as one of the most easily accessible wildlife sanctuaries in the country.