CULTURE
Mount Kilimanjaro - African continent's highest peak and world’s highest free-standing mountain
Baku, July 25, AZERTAC
Located in Tanzania, Mount Kilimanjaro, which is a majestic mountain snow-capped volcano, is the African continent's highest peak at 5,895 meters (19,340 feet) and the world’s highest free-standing mountain.
Mount Kilimanjaro sits in Kilimanjaro National Park. Located in northeast Tanzania, it can be seen from far into Kenya and Amboseli National Park.
Kilimanjaro has three volcanic cones, Mawenzi, Shira and Kibo. Mawenzi and Shira are extinct but Kibo, the highest peak, is dormant and could erupt again. The most recent activity was about 200 years ago; the last major eruption was 360,000 years ago.
Almost every kind of ecological system is found on the mountain: cultivated land, rain forest, heath, moorland, alpine desert and an arctic summit.
The mountain’s snow caps are diminishing, having lost more than 80 percent of their mass since 1912.
In fact, they may be completely ice free within the next 20 years, according to scientists.
75,000 mountaineering enthusiasts climb Kilimanjaro every year so it is not the most untouched mountain, nor is it the most arduous.
The lore of climbing Mt Kilimanjaro for many goes right back to Hans Meyer, who became the first European to reach the summit in 1889.
In 1973, the mountain and its six surrounding forest corridors were named Kilimanjaro National Park in order to protect its unique environment.
The park was named a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in 1987.
A variety of animals live in the area surrounding the mountain, including the blue monkey.