News & Tips12 Interesting Facts About Mount Kilimanjaro
Are you looking for facts and figures on Kilimanjaro? Here are 12 Interesting Facts About Mount Kilimanjaro.
This article lists 12 interesting things about the Roof of Africa that might surprise you.
1. Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the seven summits.
Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, making it one of the seven summits. Here are the seven summits in order from highest to lowest.
Asia: Everest (29,035’/8850m)
South America: Aconcagua (22,834’/6960m)
North America: Denali (20,310’/6,190m)
Africa: Kilimanjaro (19,340’/5895m)
Europe: Elbrus (18,513’/5642m)
Oceania: Carstensz Pyramid (16,023’/4884m)
Kilimanjaro is very popular with both experienced hikers and first-time adventurers because it is considered to be the easiest of the seven summits. Scaling the mountain requires no technical skills or equipment, such as ropes, harnesses, crampons, or ice axes. Therefore, it is a hiking or “walk up” peak, not a mountaineering or climbing peak. Many people who climb Kilimanjaro have no significant hiking or backpacking experience when they arrive.
2. Kilimanjaro stands on its own.
Kilimanjaro is not only Africa’s tallest peak but also the world’s tallest free-standing mountain. The summit, named Uhuru Point, is 5,895 meters (19,341 feet) above sea level.
Most high mountains are part of ranges, such as Mount Everest’s Himalayan Mountain Range. Plate tectonics forms these ranges. Below the ground, Earth’s crust is made up of multiple tectonic plates. These plates have been moving since the beginning of time due to geologic activity.
When plates push against each other, the edges crumple, forcing slabs of rock into the air. These are known as fold mountains and they are the most common type of mountain. A fault-block mountain range is caused when a fault (crack) in the Earth’s crust pushes blocks of rock up between two tectonic plates. The uplifted blocks become fault-block mountains.
Free-standing mountains like Kilimanjaro are usually a result of volcanic activity. Molten rock erupts and piles upon the surface to form volcanic mountains.
3. The mountain is on the equator.
The equator is an imaginary line that divides the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. It traverses the precise center of the Earth, dividing it in half.
The equator gets more solar radiation than the rest of the globe. The equatorial climate stays nearly the same year-round. The dominant patterns here are either warm and wet or warm and dry.
Mount Kilimanjaro lies just 205 miles from the equator, in the country of Tanzania. When early explorers reported seeing glaciers on the top of Kilimanjaro, people did not believe them, as they thought it was impossible for ice to form so close to the hot, equatorial sun. Scientists now believe that the glaciers shrink and then regrow during the planet’s ice ages.
4. Three volcanic cones created it.
As mentioned above, Kilimanjaro was formed from volcanic activity. However, the mountain once had three volcanic cones—Kibo, Shira and Mawenzi.
Kibo (19,340’/5,895m)
Mawenzi (16,893’/5,149m)
Shira (13,000’/3,962m)
Kibo is the tallest cone, as well as the central cone. This is where Kilimanjaro’s summit lies. It was formed 460,000 years ago.
Mawenzi is a craggy peak that ranks as the third highest peak in Africa, after Kibo and Mount Kenya (12,549’/3825m). You will have excellent views of Mawenzi on the Rongai and Northern Circuit routes.
Shira is no longer a peak. According to estimates, it was about 16,000 feet high before it fell, creating the Shira Plateau on the western side of the mountain. The Machame, Lemosho and Shira routes trek across this feature.
5. Kilimanjaro isn’t dead; it’s dormant.
Mount Kilimanjaro is a stratovolcano—a term for a massive volcano made of ash, lava, and rock. Shira and Mawenzi are extinct volcanoes, meaning that there is no activity underneath these cones. To put it succinctly, they have lost their lava supply.
However, Kibo is considered a dormant volcano; it can erupt again! If a volcano hasn’t erupted in the last 10,000 years, but scientists think it will erupt again, it’s considered dormant.
The last major eruption was 360,000 years ago. The most recent activity was 200,000 years ago. The ash pit is a two-hour round-trip hike from the highest campsite, Crater Camp. Those who visit the ash pit will be greeted by the smell of sulfur from the volcano’s lava.
6. No one knows the real meaning of ‘Kilimanjaro.’
The origin of the name Kilimanjaro is not certain.
European explorers had adopted the name by 1860 and reported that “Kilimanjaro” was the mountain’s Swahili name. But according to the 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia, the name of the mountain was “Kilima-Njaro,” comprised of the Swahili word “Kilima” meaning “mountain” and the Chagga word “Njaro” meaning “whiteness.”
German missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf wrote in his Missionary Labours (1860), “The Swahili of the coast call the snow mountain Kilimanjaro, “mountain of greatness.” It may also mean “mountain of caravans” (kilima – mountain; jaro – caravans), a landmark for caravans seen everywhere from afar, but the inhabitants of Jagga call it Kibo, `snow.”
Another possibility is that Kilimanjaro is the European pronunciation of a KiChagga phrase meaning “we failed to climb it.”
7. The first ascent was more than a century ago.
Mount Kilimanjaro was first climbed in 1889 by a German geologist, Hans Meyer; an Austrian climber, Ludwig Purtscheller; and a local guide, Yohani Kinyala Lauwo.
Meyer reached Kibo’s base on his first try in 1887 but had to turn back. He encountered thick snow and ice walls and did not have equipment for heavy snow and ice.
He made a second attempt in 1888 that was also unsuccessful. The locals held Meyer prisoner during the Abushiri Revolt, a time when Arab and Swahili people rose up against German traders. It was not because of the mountain itself. They set him free after paying a ransom.
Meyer finally succeeded in 1889. His support team included a guide, two local tribe leaders, nine porters, and a cook. They reached the summit on the southern rim of the crater. The Marangu route closely follows Meyer’s groundbreaking path up and down Kilimanjaro.
8. Half of the people who attempt Kilimanjaro fail.
Now approximately 30,000 people climb Kilimanjaro every year. Unsubstantiated reports often suggest that 50% of climbers fail. Surprisingly, Kilimanjaro is not seen as a very difficult peak by many climbers. After all, it is not a technical peak and requires no superhuman abilities to reach.
Why do so many people fail? Altitude sickness is the primary cause of these failures. People make the mistake of selecting the wrong route. Many who fail choose to climb on the Marangu Route, which is the shortest path (five days round trip) to the peak. However, the best way to climb is to take a longer route and allow for acclimatization. Furthermore, many people who climb Kilimanjaro are first-time backpackers.
9. Elite athletes have climbed Kilimanjaro really fast.
Kilimanjaro has been tackled at a pace that will amaze you. In 2014, Swiss Karl Egloff completed the fastest ascent and descent of Kilimanjaro in just 6 hours and 42 minutes.
How is such an achievement possible? Athletes who attempt speed climbs of high-altitude mountains have already acclimatized to the altitude. They’ve spent many days or weeks at high elevation preparing. This eliminates the risk of acute mountain sickness.
Some other notable accomplishments include the 2010 ascent of Spanish mountain runner Killian Jornet to Uhuru Peak in just 5 hours, 23 minutes, and 50 seconds.
German Anne-Marie Flammersfeld holds the record for the fastest ascent and descent by a woman on Kilimanjaro, climbing to the summit in 8 hours, 32 minutes and reaching the bottom in a total time of 12 hours, 58 minutes in 2015.
Tanjorean Simon Mtuy set the record for the fastest unassisted ascent in 2006. He climbed to the top and back in 9 hours and 19 minutes, carrying his own food, water, and clothes.
10. The young and the old have conquered Kilimanjaro.
Anyone with a reasonable degree of fitness can climb Kilimanjaro. Here is the proof.
The oldest person to successfully climb Kilimanjaro is 89-year-old American woman Anne Lorimor. She broke the world record in 2019 from 88-year-old Dr. Fred Distelhorst.
The youngest person to climb Kilimanjaro is American Coaltan Tanner, who summited at age six in 2018. Asheen Mandrick, six, became the youngest girl to summit, dethroning Montannah Kenney, seven.
The minimum age to climb Kilimanjaro is 10, but the park authority exempts experienced trekkers.
11. The journey to the summit is like going from the equator to Antarctica.
Kilimanjaro climbers pass through five ecological zones. These include:
Bushland/Cultivated Zone: 2,600′-6,000’/800m-1,800m
Rainforest Zone: 6,000′-9,200’/1,800m-2,800m
Heath/Moorland Zone: 9,200′-13,200’/2,800m-4,000m
Alpine Desert Zone: 13,200′-16,500’/4,000m-5,000m
Arctic Zone:16,500’+/5,000m+
Weather conditions near the base of the mountain tend to be tropical to semi-temperate and are relatively stable all year round. The lower plains are hot and dry. As one heads away from the bushland and toward the rainforest, conditions become increasingly warm and humid.
Each zone gets colder and drier as the elevation increases. At higher elevations, alpine desert and heath animals and plants disappear.
The summit is in the arctic zone, characterized by ice and rock. At this altitude, categorized as “extreme,” there can be no permanent human habitation, as the body is in a state of deterioration (short exposures are OK).
12. Kilimanjaro’s ice cap will eventually melt away.
Climate change is exemplified by the glaciers on Kilimanjaro. Its icecap has decreased by 82% since 1912. Scientists predict that the glaciers could vanish entirely within 50 years. Scientists believe that deforestation, not necessarily global warming, is the cause of this.
Melting and sublimation (the transition from solid phase directly to vapor) both contribute to the ice loss, says study author Doug Hardy, a glaciologist from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Hardy says a drying climate in East Africa has caused the glaciers to retreat for over a century. Around 5 million native trees were planted in the vicinity of the mountain’s base in 2008.
Those were the 12 Interesting Facts About Mount Kilimanjaro. If you are considering climbing Kilimanjaro, the time to do it is soon.
