8 stunning facts about Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s tallest mountain

Tanzania gushes over Mount Kilimanjaro’s dazzling features among them the status that it is the world’s highest free-standing mountain in the world but this is deservedly so.

Mount Kilimanjaro whose fame across the world is phenomenal towers high in the plains of Tanzania to measure 19,341-ft with a summit that has tormented the courage of thousands of mountain climbers since 1889 when the first successful climbers made it to the snow-capped peak.

There is so much to marvel about Mount Kilimanjaro as outlined herein:

1. Africa’s tallest mountain

Its status of being Africa’s tallest mountain has over the years pulled in millions of tourist from the world all over. The fact that it is uniquely a free-standing mountain makes it a top tourist attraction in Africa.

2. Volcanic activity

Although the last volcanic activity to be reported was 200 years ago, today, Mount Kilimanjaro prides in having three volcanic cones; Mawenzi, Shira and Kibo some of which are now extinct except for Kibo which is the mountain’s highest peak with a volcanic dormant status.

3. Kibo’s Crater Summit

At the Uhuru peak, the highest point on Kibo’s crater which only the brave-hearted have managed to not only see but step on, there is a memento book stored in a wooden box where each successful mountain climber who has gotten to the top jots down something.

4. Anne Lorimor

She is the oldest female to have ever scaled up to Uhuru Peak aged 89 years. She took 37 days to get to the peak. Robert Wheeler, an American national took 201 days to achieve the same success as Lorimor whole aged 85.

5. Record time

Bruno Brunod, an Italian tourist still holds the record as the only person to have ascended to the top in record time 5hrs 38 min 40sec. On the other hand, Simon Mtuy, a local guide did a round trip in 2004 in eight hours!

6. 4.8 million Indigenous Trees

Being a rich ecological zone the Tanzanian government in 2008 announced that a total of 4.8 million trees would be planted on the foothills on the mountain to promote conservation which had been threatened by soil erosion

7. Climbing in a wheelchair

When Bernard Goosen, a South African declared his interest to climb to the peak, many wondered how this would be possible but even in a wheelchair, he went on to make his dream come true in 2003. He took nine days and went back for the second climb in 2007 where he took six days to get to the summit. Goosen who has lived with cerebral palsy for since he was a toddler, ascended the mountain with a specially modified wheelchair that required little or no assistance to get to the top.

8. 25,000 people

Every year, an estimated 25,000 people attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. Of these, 15,000 at least, make it to the summit while the rest dealt a blow by varying altitude.