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Mount Kenya
An eroded equatorial volcano, Africa's second-highest peak
Mount Kenya is the second-highest mountain in Africa, an ancient eroded volcano whose jagged rock summits - Batian at 5,199 metres and Nelion just beside it - rise straight off the equator yet wear glaciers and permanent snow. The mountain gave the country its name, and its serrated profile, the worn-down plug of a once far larger volcano, is a sharp contrast to the smooth dome of nearby Kilimanjaro. To the Kikuyu people it is the dwelling place of Ngai, the supreme god.
Some three million years of erosion have stripped away the soft outer cone of the original volcano, leaving the hard crystalline core as a cluster of pinnacles ringed by glaciers - though those glaciers, like Kilimanjaro's, are retreating rapidly and several have already vanished. The mountain climbs through distinct vegetation belts, from farmland and bamboo forest to the surreal alpine zone of giant groundsels and lobelias, plants found only on East Africa's high peaks. Its meltwater and rainfall feed rivers vital to the surrounding lowlands.
The highest twin summits, Batian and Nelion, are technical rock climbs first conquered in 1899 by Halford Mackinder's expedition, while the lower Point Lenana is a walkable trekking peak reached by thousands each year. Mount Kenya National Park and the surrounding forest are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, protecting a water tower for the region and an island of montane biodiversity. The mountain remains central to Kikuyu tradition, with homes once built to face its sacred heights.