Nakuru is the fourth city in Kenya according to its population, but after Nairobi it is the most prominent in the inlands, since the second and third, Mombasa and Kisumu respectively, lie at the shores of the Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria. Therefore, Nakuru is the inland headtown, and its location at the Rift makes it the neural center of the valley. The city was founded upon the railroad works. From the start it became the most important station in the valley, given that here the line branches to Kisumu and Kampala. In 1902 the tents began to be replaced by brick buildings and permanent settlings. One year after, Lord Delamere, one of the most prominent figures in the Colony days, purchased 400 km² at the slopes of Mau Escarpment, southwest of the city, as well as 200 km² more at Soysambu, at the other side of the lake. Delamere promoted a wide program for land sharing among the British. When settlers populated the area, their attempts to breed cattle were unsuccessful: pastures in the region are low in iron. Thus, agriculture proved to be the only profitable activity.

At the town center there is a flea market selling lots of handcrafts. Objects manufactured with flamingoes' feathers are abundant. The city has some hotels, among which outstands the Midlands Hotel.

Kariandusi:

Before reaching Nakuru along the main road A104, at the right hand, lies the Kariandusi prehistoric site, managed by the National Museums of Kenya. Next to this place there is also a diatomite mine.

The site, of the Acheulean period, is open daily from 8 AM to 6 PM. It was discovered in 1928 by the famous paleoanthropologist Louis S.B. Leakey. Excavations would later be run by his sons. The site hosts a museum and two excavated areas. The remains have been dated to the lower Pleistocene period, 0.7-1 million years ago. Studies suggest that it was not a place of permanent dwelling, rather a workshop according to the amount of stone hand axes and cleavers found. Many of these tools are made with obsidian, a vitreous black volcanic rock. Possibly the Kariandusi men killed here the animals they fed on and manufactured in situ the tools they used for this task. Concerning the identity of these dwellers, everything seems to point to Homo erectus, who later on would be bound to leave their settlings upon the water level rise up to several hundreds of meters above the current level of Nakuru and Elmenteita lakes.

Next to the site there is an open air diatomite mine. Diatomite is a silicon rock originated by compression of the skeletons of diatoms, microscopic algae with an external silicon cover consisting of two pieces that fit each other as a box and its cap. The rock is industrially used as an abrassive, as a filtering material for brewing and as an absorbent for killing weevils by dehydration in grain silos, as well as for manufacturing paints and insulation materials. Traditionally, the Kikuyu people use this rock for body painting, hence the name karia andus.

More info: Kariandusi official website.

Hyrax Hill:

Only 3.5 km before reaching Nakuru, turning right from the A104, lies the Hyrax Hill prehistoric site, run by the National Museums of Kenya. The place is open daily from 9:30 AM to 6 PM.

The hill that hosts the site was named in the early 20th century after the rock hyrax, a small mammal which in those days used to populate these rocks. Once more, it was Professor Louis Leakey who in 1926 came aware of the remains in the area, though excavations wouldn't start until 1937 under the direction of his wife Mary and would be continued in following decades by other researchers. The place seems to have been an island or a peninsula, since the works have shown the remains of primeval beaches that would probably border the huge lake, possibly a fresh water inland sea, that 8,500 years ago covered Nakuru and Elmenteita.

The excavation works unearthed a set of remains that cover the past 3,000 years. Overall three settlings were identified, sometimes superimposed, which were inhabited from the Neolithic period to the Iron Age, some 300 years ago. The tombs belonging to the most ancient Hyrax Hill dwellers preserve nineteen skeletons, those corresponding to women carefully adorned and surrounded by household items. On top of this old necropolis another one was built during the Iron Age. Curiously enough, this one also rendered nineteen skeletons.

Other Iron Age remains comprise a walled fort and several stone circles which might correspond to huts' basements and/or pens for cattle. The remains at the settling called northeast village suggest that probably not all the dwellings were used at the same time, rather they were built and inhabited until they became unusable and replaced then by newer ones in a nearby area. There is even the possibility that the place was occupied by only a single family or that it was just a seasonal settling. Its owners could have been Kalenjin or Sirikwa pastoralists, who possibly left their territories upon being invaded by the Maasai, fleeing to settle then at their current lands.

As an oddity, the rocky hill is carved in various places with marks that suggest boards for playing Bau, the Bantu name for a game which even today is very popular in Africa and Arabia. Finally, the adjacent museum displays several pieces of ceramic, glass and stone tools, as well as informative panels on the diverse Rift Valley cultures.

More info: Hyrax Hill official website.

Menengai Crater:

Menengai Crater belongs to an extinct volcano that escorts the city of Nakuru from the north side, though it does such in a very inconspicuous way, since from the town it is hard to appreciate the presence of this sleeping giant.

The road climbing to the cone's rim from the town of Menengai is passable by car. At the highest point, at some 2,300 m above sea level, a signpost erected by the Rotary Club shows the directions and distances to several places in the world. The greatest attraction of this place is the magnificent view, both toward the crater bed itself and toward the lake from the southern slope. Some figures: the crater has a surface of 90 km², a diameter of 12 km and a depth reaching 500 m in some places.

The place is legendary, since in the 19th century it was the scene for a fratricide battle between different Maasai clans for the pastures at Naivasha and the Rift slopes. The Laikipia rebels, who wouldn't recognise the authority of the laibon Mbatian and had also commited the severe crime of land culturing, were defeated by their southern neighbours, the Ilpurko Maasai. The legend tells that the Ilaikipiak moran or warriors were thrown over the crater's rim, and that the fumaroles rising from the bed's gaps are the souls of the defeated that seek their way to heaven. This is the rationale for one version of the place's name, according to which it is named after the Maa word "Menenga", meaning "the dead".