| Kilimanjaro National Park (Kilimanjaro National Park) | |
 | |
| Information | |
| Country |  Tanzania |
|---|---|
| IUCN Category | II (National Park) |
| Location | |
 3 ° 4 ′ 0 ″ S 37 ° 21 ′ 33 ″ E | |
the Kilimanjaro is the highlight of theAfrica with a height of 5,895 meters.
It can be written Kilimanjaro (French spelling) or Kilimanjaro (local and Anglo-Saxon spelling). It is a stratovolcano born seven hundred and fifty thousand years ago.
Understand
The name
It can come from words of swahili, “Kilima” (small mountain) and “njaro” (the demon of the cold); or the expression "njaro" (caravans), in reference to the convoys of slaves of Arab merchants from Zanzibar, which used to stop in the area. Some speak of the word "njare", the source of water. The Maasai simply call it "Ngage Ngai", meaning the "house of God".
The Chaggas never gave a name to this mountain. They only distinguish the great white volcano, named Kibo (the one that radiates), symbol of eternity and luck, from the black peak Mawenzi (5 149 m) in the east, associated with the forces of evil. A third peak, the Shira, in the west, only reaches 3,962 meters altitude. The Kibo, the main summit, is a caldera of 2,500 meters of diameter.
The story
Before XIXe century, a few rare chroniclers such as the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy mentioned the existence of a "white mountain" in the heart of Africa. In 1845, the British geographer William Cooley, sure of his science, assures us that the most famous mountain in East Africa, called the Kirimanjara, is covered with red rocks.
In May 1848, a missionary, Joseph Rebmann, plunged into the Chagga country and ended up approaching the mountain: “Towards 10 h, I saw something remarkably white on top of a high mountain and thought at first that it was clouds, but my guide told me it was cold, so I recognized with delight this old companion of the Europeans called snow ”. His discovery, reported in April 1849 in the Church Missionary Intelligencer, is disputed in London.
It was not until 1861 that an expedition, led by the German baron Klaus von der Decken and the English botanist Richard Thornton, revealed that it was indeed a snowy peak.
In 1883 the Englishman Joseph Thomson then Count Teleki attacked the summit, but did not go beyond 5 300 mAfter two failures, Hans Meyer, the reaches the top, accompanied by his friend Ludwig Purtscheller and chagga guide Yohana Lauwo. This one would have died at 127 years, in 1997, but it is perhaps only a legend, like the presence of a frozen leopard corpse, found in 5,500 meters!
To go
- 1 Kilimanjaro International Airport (IATA : JRO, ICAO: HTKJ, Uwanja wa ndege wa Kimataifa wa Kilimanjaro) (between Moshi and Arusha and at 50 km southwest of the summit of Kilimanjaro)
