Kilimanjaro

KILIMANJARO (ki-li-man-jah'r6), a mountain in East Africa, its centre lying in 3° 5' S. and 37° 23' E. ; the highest known summit of Africa, rising as a volcanic cone from a plateau of about 3,00o ft. to 19,321 feet. Though completely isolated it is one of several summits on the eastern edge of the plateau of equa torial Africa. Along with Mount Kenya (q.v.), 200 m. to the north, and Mount Meru (q.v.), 25 m. due west, it stands on a line of volcanic cones. Kilimanjaro lies on an east to west fault which is crossed by other faults near the peak. The volcanic rocks are leucitic and the oldest flows are of kenyte (trachy-dolerite suite) covered by a nepheline-phonolite suite.

The major axis of Kilimanjaro runs almost east and west, and on it rise the two principal summits, Kibo (west), Mawenzi (east). Kibo, the higher, is a truncated cone with a nearly perfect extinct crater, and marks a comparatively recent period of volcanic ac tivity; while Mawenzi (16,892 ft.) is the older core of a former summit, of which the crater walls have been removed by denuda tion. The two peaks, about 7 m. apart, are connected by a sad dle (14,00o f t.), below which the vast mass slopes, in a typical volcanic curve, to the plains below. The sides are furrowed on the south and east by a large number of narrow ravines, the streams in which feed the Pangani and Lake Jipe (south) and the Tsavo tributary of the Sabaki (east). South-west of Kibo, the Shira ridge seems to be of independent origin, while in the north-west a rugged group of cones, of comparatively recent origin, has poured forth vast lava-flows. In the south-east is another ridge running down from Mawenzi.

The lava slopes of the Kibo peak are covered to

a depth of some 200 ft. with an ice-cap, which, where ravines occur, takes the form of genuine glaciers. The crater walls are highest on the south. The rim here sinks precipitously some 600 ft. to the interior of the crater, which measures rather over 2,000 yd. in diameter, and is in part covered by ice, in part by a bare cone of ashes. On the west the rim is breached, allowing the passage of an important glacier. Lower down this cleft is occupied by two glaciers, one of which reaches a lower level (13,800 ft.) than any

other on Kilimanjaro. On the north-west three large glaciers reach down to 16,000 ft.

Mawenzi peak has no permanent ice-cap. The rock of which it is composed has become very jagged by denudation, forming stupendous walls and precipices. On the east the peak falls with great abruptness some 6,500 ft. to a vast ravine, due apparently to dislocation. Below this the slope is more gradual and more symmetrical. Like the other high mountains of eastern Africa, Kilimanjaro presents well-defined zones of vegetation. The low est slopes are arid and scantily covered with scrub, but between 4,000 and 6,000 ft. on the south side the slopes are well watered and cultivated. The forest zone begins, on the south, at about 6,500 ft., and extends to 9,500, but in the north it is narrower, and in the north-west, the driest quarter of the mountain, almost disappears. In the alpine zone, marked especially by tree lobelias and Senecio, flowering plants extend up to 15,700 ft. on the sheltered south-west flank of Mawenzi, but elsewhere vegetation grows only in dwarfed patches beyond 13,000 ft. The special fauna and flora of the upper zone are akin to those of other high African mountains. The southern slopes, between 4,000 and 6,000 ft., form the well-peopled country of Chaga, divided into small districts.

Johannes Rebmann of the Church Missionary Society journeyed inland from Mombasa in 1848 and discovered Kiliman jaro, which is some 200 m. inland. Visits were paid to the moun tain by Baron Karl von der Decken (1861 and 1862) and Charles New (1867), Joseph Thomson (1883), Sir H. H. Johnston (1884) and others. The mountain was studied by F. Jaeger in 1907.

It has been the special study of Dr. Hans Meyer, who made four expeditions to it, accomplishing the first ascent to the summit in 1889. In 1884 the mountain was secured by a British com pany, in 1886 it was ceded to Germany and in 1919 was included in the British mandated territory of Tanganyika.

See Hans Meyer, Across East African Glaciers (1891) ; Der Kiliman jaro (Berlin, 1900) ; F. Jaeger, Forsch. Hochregion d. Kilimandscharo (Mitt. deutsch. Schutzgeb., 194).