TZMPAKAAU

MOUNT KILIMANJARO

The highest Mountain of Africa  at  5895metres or 19341 feet above sea level 

The mountain  has  three different volcanic cones namely

• Kibo at  5895metres above sea level
• Mawenzi  at 5139metres above sea level
• Shira at 3962 metres above sea level

Uhuru peak is marked as the peak of Africa this is the highest summit Kibo`s crater rim. 

The name Kilimanjaro

It is unknown  where the name Kilimanjaro originates but  a number of theories exists.European explores adopted the name Kilimanjaro in 1860s and explained it had its origin in Kiswahili.

With Kilimanjaro breaking into Kilima (Swahili word for "hill","little mountain").

Now Njaro could originate from local joke on Njaro reffering "little hill of Njaro" being the biggest mountain on african continent.

A different a approach is to assume it comes from Kichaga (Kichaga is the name for the local languages around Kilimanjaro) Kilmnare or Kileajao which mean defeat bird/caravan or leopard.

Alternative theory suggest the name could originate from Chagga phrase "Kile-lema-ihro"meaning "we failed to  climb it ".

Trekking Kilimanjaro

 There are six official trekking routes.

   Marangu,Rongai,Lemosho,Shira,Umbwe and Machame.Among all the routes Machame is the difficultiest one because of its steepness which can be done in six or seven days.

 Rongai is the easiest route of all the routes.Marangu route   is also claimed to be easiest one which makes the two routes very busy in comparance to the others.

Unique vegetation 

Kilimanjaro has enomorous Biodiversity,Kilimanjaro has large variety of forest types over an altitude of  3000m containing more than 1200 vascular plant species.

Interesting the mountain does lie not very far from the line of equator and still it has ice covers itself.  

Ice  

In the late 1880 the summit of Kibo was covered by an Ice cap with outlet glaciers cascading down the western and southern slopes.

An examination on the ice cores on Kilimanjaro indicates that snows of Kilimanjaro are aging 11,700 years.The ice survived  drought condition during a three century period beggining ~2200BC

Since 1912 up to know there has been 80% loss on the ice covering the mountain.

Location

Mount Kilimanjaro located  in north east of  Tanzania at the region named Kilimanjaro.