The Lower Awash Valley in Ethiopia’s Afar Depression is among the world’s most important palaeoanthropological regions. Sediments exposed across its dry terrain preserve fossil animals, stone tools and hominin remains spanning millions of years. UNESCO inscribed the approximately 150-square-kilometre property in 1980 because discoveries here changed scientific understanding of human evolution.
The best-known find is “Lucy,” the partial skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis recovered at Hadar in 1974 by a research team led in the field by Donald Johanson. Fifty-two fragments allowed much of the skeleton to be reconstructed. Lucy is not displayed at the discovery point; the original remains belong to Ethiopia’s national collections. A visit to the National Museum in Addis Ababa provides essential context before any journey into Afar.
