Mt Kilimanjaro

Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro, affectionately known as Kili, is the tallest mountain in Africa and the third highest in the world. Snow-capped and not yet extinct, at 5 895 meters it’s the highest free standing mountain in the world comprising one extinct volcano, Shira at 3 962 meters, and two dormant volcanoes, Mawenzi 5 149 meters, and Kibo 5 894 meters. Kibo was still active 360 000 years ago but all three peaks have been pretty well behaved since then.
Kili isn’t part of a high mountain range but rises in complete isolation. Its towering snow-capped, symmetrical cone is a world-recognized image of Africa. It stands up so unexpectedly from Tanzania’s flat plains that if you drive past when Kili is covered by cloud, you could miss it altogether without realising it was there.
A World Heritage site since 1989, the Kilimanjaro National Park covers an area of approximately 755 sq km. It is about 120 kms from Arusha – though the nearest large town is Moshi – and 90 km from the Kilimanjaro International Airport. The mountain creates a micro-climate and the rain-shadow to the south and east supplies Arusha and Moshi with superbly fertile land full of banana groves and coffee plantations. There are many explanations for how the mountain got its name. It could have been derived from the Swahili word kilima which means ‘top of the hill’, though there is a Tanzanian beer called Kilimanjaro so perhaps the great mountain was named in its honour!
Climbing Kili is the adventure of a lifetime for many visitors to Tanzania, and about 20 000 people climb it every year. It’s the highest ‘walkable’ mountain in the world. It can be climbed without ropes or technical expertise and is the world’s most visited mountain. The mountain supports a unique combination of climatic zones that take you on the equivalent of a trip from the equator to the Arctic in just over a few days.
The grassy cultivated lower slopes lead up into rich rainforest inhabited by leopard, elephant, antelope and buffalo. Above the forest is moorland dotted with giant lobelias and massive heathers. The barren and cold Alpine desert is just below the snow line. Between four and five thousand meters the temperature of this desert zone ranges from subzero at night to 30°C during the day. The oxygen level is half that of sea level. At the top, there are permanent glaciers. The ice cap on Kibo peak is 2.25 km wide, but like Mount Kenya, Kili’s glaciers have started to erode because of global warming. The ice is receding at such a rate that there is concern it may disappear completely within the next 20 years – 33% of Kili’s ice has disappeared in the last two decades, 82% since 1912.