Mount Kilimanjaro

Where is Mount Kilimanjaro?

Mount Kilimanjaro is part of the East African Rift volcanoes.

You will find it in: Tanzania.

Summit: 3.076° S, 37.353° E

The story behind it

Kilimanjaro is actually three volcanoes grown together — Shira, Mawenzi, and Kibo, the tallest, whose crater rim, Uhuru Peak, is the true summit. It last erupted many thousands of years ago and is considered dormant rather than dead. The mountain rises straight from savannah plains where Chagga farmers grow coffee and bananas on its lower slopes, through rainforest, moorland, and alpine desert, into an arctic-like zone of ice at the top, so climbing it means passing through nearly every climate on Earth in less than a week. Unlike Everest, no ropes or technical skill are needed on the main routes, which is why thousands of ordinary hikers attempt it every year — though many still turn back from altitude sickness. Its glaciers, once thick and permanent, have shrunk dramatically over the last century and scientists expect them to disappear completely within a few decades.

Find it on the globe

Mount Kilimanjaro is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.