The History of Kilimanjaro
By: Robert Palmer | Posted: 29th March 2008
Kilimanjaro is among the twenty six regions found in Tanzania, it contains many features but the most significance feature is Kilimanjaro Mountain. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, it?s also one of the biggest volcanoes on Earth, covering an area of approximately 388,500 hectares. This mountain has three main peak, Mawenzi, Kibo and Shira.
The Kibo summit is the best conserved crater on the mountain; its southern lip is slightly higher than the rest of the rim, and the highest point on this southern lip is known as Uhuru Peak which is at about 5895m high. This peak is only one among three summits which is permanently covered by snow.
Mawenzi is the second highest peak on Kilimanjaro. Located after Kibo, Mawenzi looks less like a crater than a single lump of jagged, craggy rock rising from the Saddle. This is merely because its western side also happens to be its highest, and hides everything behind it. This peak is of the horseshoe shape, its side is too steep to hold glaciers, and also there is no permanent snow as compared to Kibo. The highest point of Mawenzi peak is called Hans Meyer peak which is at about 5149m this is so shattered and so risks with gullies and fracture, there are other peak including Purtschller peak at 5120m, and South peak at 4958m apart from that there is also two deep gorges which are Great Barranco and the Lesser Barranco scarring its north eastern face.
The oldest and smallest summit on Kilimanjaro is called the Shira Ridge which lies on the western edge of the mountain. It is about 3962m high of its highest peak which is called Johnsell point. This ridge is, in fact, merely the western and southern rims of the crater formed by the original volcanic eruption.
Kilimanjaro is located on the northern border of Tanzania, overlooking Kenya, and just over 200 miles south of the Equator. The area is not particularly mountainous indeed; the nearest mountain to Kilimanjaro is Mount Meru, over 60km away to the south-west.
We know that man has lived on or around the mountain since at least 1000BC. We also know that, over the last 500 years, the mountain has at different times acted as a navigational aid for traders traveling between the interior and the coast, a magnet for Victorian explorers, a political pawn to be traded between European superpowers who carved up East Africa, a frontline for these same superpowers, and a potent symbol of independence for those who wished to rid themselves of these colonial interlopers.
The first inhabitant living in Kilimanjaro were most participate in fashioning the stone bowls, but if weren?t they would spent time in hunting and gathering of local flora and fauna. Apart from that it the Kilimanjaro is the suitable area for the both fresh drinking water and materials ?woods, stone, mud, vies for building.
The name Kilimanjaro comes from the local Tanzanian dialects, and mostly by the language spoken of the people who were living at that place (Chagga people), the word Kilimanjaro is not the word from Chagga vocabulary, but if we divide the word it into two part we get ?Kilima? which derived from Chagga (kilelema) which means difficult or impossible, the ?jaro? also derived from the Chagga (njaare) means bird or jyro (caravan). In general the word Kilimanjaro means ?something like that is impossible for bird.
The Chagga people themselves do not have only single name for the mountain! Instead, they separate peaks, namely Mawenzi and Kibo. (These two names are coming from the Chagga terms kimawenzi ? ?having a broken top or summit? ? and kipoo ? ?snow? ? respectively. Note that the word Kilimanjaro is not origin from Chagga, but bear in mind that it comes from Swahili language which means ?Mountain of Greatness?. The third and least likely dialect from which Kilimanjaro could have been derived is Masai, this is the major tribe across the border in Kenya, the masai call the mountain as the Old Inyo Oibor, which means ?White mountain?, with Kibo known as the ?House of God?.
In other possibility, njaro means ?whiteness?, referring to the snow cap that Kilimanjaro permanently wears, or in other word Njaro is the name of the evil spirit who lives on the mountain, causing trouble and even death to all those who climb it.
The area receives two rains per annum, the first one is caused by the south?east trade wind which brings rain from Indian ocean, on between March and May, this seasons is called the long seasons, and is the most wet seasons of the Mountain. Apart from this there is also the dry season in which there is strongly wind blow, this seasons don?t carry rain, and it between May to October. The second rain season is between November and February which is called short rainy season and it is caused by south east trade wind.
Here animals are more likely to appear in the forest than anywhere in the mountain, these animals including, Blue monkey which appear normally near Mandara huts, actually these animals are not blue, but grey or black with white throat. Apart from these there is also Olive baboons, civets, leopards, mongooses and servals which are said to live in the mountain?s forest as well, though sightings are extremely rare; here, too, lives the bush pig with its distinctive white stripe running along its back from head to tail.
For more information on visiting Tanzania contact Wild Things
For more information on visiting Tanzania's mountains contact Mountain Kingdom
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Frederick Mlaponi is a Tanzanian Student researcher on work experience with Wild Things Safaris in Tanzania http://www.wildthingsafaris.com . http://www.mksafaris.com .
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Tags: volcanic eruption, glaciers, equator, volcanoes, western edge