Kilimanjaro

Mount Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa, rising 5,895 metres above the plains of northern Tanzania. It is also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world (not part of a mountain range, but standing alone). Kilimanjaro is famous for being snow-capped despite sitting only 3 degrees from the equator, but the snow is rapidly shrinking due to climate change.

• Height5,895 mTallest free-standing mountain on Earth
• CountryTanzaniaIn East Africa
• TypeStratovolcanoDormant rather than active
• Climbers per yearapprox. 50,000Most successful climbers in the world
• Vegetation zones5From rainforest to arctic desert
• Distance from Equatorapprox. 330 kmDespite being snowy

Kilimanjaro compared to other famous peaks

Height (metres)

Everest8,849

K28,611

Aconc.6,961

Denali6,190

Kilim.5,895

M.Blanc4,808

Kilimanjaro is one of the Seven Summits (the tallest mountains on each continent). It is much shorter than the Asian giants but is the tallest in Africa.

What is Kilimanjaro?

Mount Kilimanjaro is a dormant volcano in northeastern Tanzania, near the border with Kenya. It is actually three separate volcanic cones (Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira) joined together. The highest point, Uhuru Peak on Kibo, is what people usually mean when they talk about climbing Kilimanjaro. The mountain rises straight from the East African plain, with no nearby foothills, which is why it looks so dramatic from a distance and why it is called "free-standing".

Five different worlds

Walking up Kilimanjaro means passing through five completely different vegetation zones, almost like travelling from the equator to the North Pole in a few days.

• Cultivated zone (0 to 1,800 m): coffee plantations, banana trees and small farms on the rich volcanic soil.
• Rainforest (1,800 to 2,800 m): thick wet tropical forest, home to blue monkeys, colobus monkeys and three species of hornbill.
• Heather and moorland (2,800 to 4,000 m): cool open country with giant heather and the strange-looking giant groundsel (Senecio kilimanjari) and giant lobelia plants.
• Alpine desert (4,000 to 5,000 m): cold, windy and bare. Just lichens and a few hardy plants.
• Arctic zone (5,000 m and above): ice, glaciers and rock. Almost no life at all.

Fact The Kilimanjaro ice cap has shrunk by around 90% since 1912, when accurate measurements first started. Scientists think the snow could disappear completely within the next few decades because of climate change. The "snows of Kilimanjaro" made famous by Ernest Hemingway's short story may not exist for many more years.

Climbing it

Climbing Kilimanjaro is unusual among the world's great mountains because it does not require any technical climbing skills. There are seven main routes to the summit, all essentially long walks through different terrain. The most popular is the Marangu route (the "Coca-Cola route") which takes 5 to 6 days; the most scenic is the Machame route ("Whisky route") which takes 6 to 7 days. The success rate varies hugely with how slowly you go: short trips fail more than half the time, longer trips around 80% succeed.

The biggest challenge is altitude sickness. Climbers go from sea level to 5,895 metres in less than a week, far faster than the body can normally adjust. Mild altitude sickness (headache, nausea, breathlessness) is common; severe altitude sickness can be fatal. The standard advice is "pole pole" (Swahili for "slowly, slowly").

Did you know? Around 50,000 people try to climb Kilimanjaro every year, more than any other major peak. About 30,000 reach the summit. The youngest person to make it was 6 years old; the oldest was 89.

Deeper dive: African rifting, the disappearing glaciers and Tanzania's economy

Kilimanjaro is part of the wider geological feature called the East African Rift, a giant crack in the Earth's crust where the African continent is slowly tearing apart. The rift runs from the Red Sea in the north to Mozambique in the south. As the crust stretches and thins, magma from beneath rises through cracks to the surface, creating volcanoes. Kilimanjaro began erupting around 750,000 years ago. Its most recent eruption was perhaps 360,000 years ago. The mountain is officially classified as dormant (not extinct), but there are no signs of imminent activity.

The famous Kilimanjaro ice cap on the summit's Kibo cone is one of the most studied glaciers in the tropics. Ice core samples show that the current ice cap is at least 11,700 years old, dating back to the end of the last ice age. The ice has shrunk in fits and starts since records began in the 1880s, but the rate has accelerated sharply since the 1990s. The main cause is not direct warming (the summit is still well below freezing) but a change in cloud patterns and humidity that reduces snowfall and increases sublimation (ice turning straight into vapour). Without new snowfall to replace what sublimates, the glacier shrinks. Scientists estimate that, on current trends, the Kilimanjaro ice cap will be entirely gone somewhere between 2030 and 2060.

Tourism to Kilimanjaro is a major part of Tanzania's economy. The mountain employs around 11,000 porters and 1,000 guides directly, and supports thousands more workers in the hotels, restaurants and transport services of nearby towns like Moshi and Arusha. The income from climbing fees (around $1,000 to $4,000 per climber, depending on the route and operator) funds the Kilimanjaro National Park and a significant portion of the Tanzanian national parks budget overall. The Chaga people, the indigenous farmers who live on the mountain's lower slopes, have benefitted unevenly: some have prospered from tourism, others have been pushed off traditional farmland by park expansion. The Tanzanian government has introduced new rules in recent years to try to ensure porters are paid fairly.

The country is Tanzania. For the highest mountain in the world, see Mount Everest.