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Mount Kilimanjaro
Africa's highest peak, a snow-capped volcano on the equator
Rising alone from the plains of northern Tanzania, Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and the tallest free-standing mountain on Earth, its glaciated summit floating improbably above the equatorial savanna at 5,895 metres. It is not part of any range but a colossal volcano built from three cones - Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira - and its snows, set against herds of elephant on the plains below, have made it one of the most recognisable natural landmarks in the world.
Kilimanjaro is a dormant stratovolcano whose highest cone, Kibo, last showed significant activity tens of thousands of years ago, though fumaroles still vent gas in its crater. A climb from base to summit passes through a stack of climate zones - cultivated foothills, rainforest, heath and moorland, alpine desert, and finally the arctic summit - a compression of ecosystems rarely found in one place. Its famous ice cap is shrinking fast - the glaciers that crowned Kibo for millennia have lost most of their mass and may vanish within decades.
The first recorded ascent of Kibo came in 1889, when the German geographer Hans Meyer and the Austrian Ludwig Purtscheller reached the summit with the local guide Yohani Kinyala Lauwo. The mountain lies within Kilimanjaro National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and tourism built around climbing it is a pillar of the regional economy. On its lower slopes the Chagga people have farmed the rich volcanic soils for centuries, terracing the foothills with bananas and coffee.