Empakaai lies in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, north-east of the main crater. It is smaller and far less visited: a caldera roughly six kilometres across, with steep forested walls and a deep soda lake filling much of its floor.
Flamingos gather on the lake in numbers that can reach into the thousands, and the colour against the dark crater walls is the reason most people come. Buffalo, bushbuck and blue monkey occur in the forest on the rim and slopes.
Unlike Ngorongoro Crater, Empakaai is explored on foot — a steep descent of around 300 metres to the lake shore and back, with a mandatory armed ranger. From the northern rim on a clear morning both Ol Doinyo Lengai and, sometimes, Kilimanjaro are visible.