Mount Kilimanjaro

Description

Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, located in Northeast Tanzania, near the Kenya border. Kilimanjaro is an extinct volcano, and is one of the most massive in the world. It towers 15,000 feet above the surrounding arid plains, and 2.5 square miles of its surface are over 18,500 feet.

Beneath its ice dome, snow extends down long gullies that have been eroded in the mountain sides. The ice cap, which formed 11,000 years ago, has retreated significantly in recent years, as much as 80% in the last century. Scientists expect it to be gone within the early half of the 21st Century.

Kilimanjaro's summit crater, known as Kibo, measures 1.5 miles across. The highest point on Kibo's steep rim is Uhuru, the highest peak in Africa. Nestled in the center of Kibo is a smaller crater, 600-feet deep in sulfurous ashes. Mawenzi (16,893 ft), Kilimanjaro's smaller second cone, is Mawenzi the third highest peak in Africa (Mount Kenya is second at 17,057 feet).

Mawenzi is seven miles east of Kibo, separated by a long saddle. It is an older cone, jagged from erosion, with sheer faces on all sides. Despite its lower elevation, Mawenzi is the more difficult climb, and no approach is possible without rock climbing and/or snow and ice climbing skills.

The approach and climb provides spectacular diversity, from scrub-lands thick with African wildlife to lush forests to flowering alpine tundra. All this finally gives way to snow and rock above 15,000 feet.

• Mount Kilimanjaro - Wikipedia