Mount Kenya

Mount Kenya is a giant mountain in Kenya, in Africa.

It stands right next to the Equator, where it is usually warm. But its top is so high that it has snow and ice. Only one mountain in Africa is taller.

Mount Kenya rises in the middle of Kenya, just south of the Equator and about 193 kilometers northeast of the capital, Nairobi. It is the second highest mountain in Africa; only Kilimanjaro, about 320 kilometers to the south, is taller.

Its top is a cluster of steep, rocky peaks. The highest, Batian, is 5,199 meters tall, and Nelion is just 11 meters lower. Ridges and seven main valleys spread out from the peaks like the spokes of a wheel. Even on the Equator, small glaciers cling to the high peaks. In the Kikuyu language, the mountain is called Kirinyaga, which Britannica translates as Mountain of Whiteness.

Britannica places Mount Kenya immediately south of the Equator in central Kenya; UNESCO describes it as straddling the Equator about 193 km northeast of Nairobi and about 480 km from the coast. It is Africa's second-highest mountain after Kilimanjaro, about 320 km to the south. Its base lies at about 1,600 m, and at the 2,440 m contour its circumference is about 153 km.

The summit is a group of steep pyramidal peaks: Batian (5,199 m), Nelion (5,188 m) and Point Lenana (4,985 m), with four secondary peaks at the heads of U-shaped glacial valleys. Ridges separated by seven principal valleys radiate from the center, and the drainage is markedly radial, though all streams eventually reach the Tana or the Ewaso Ng'iro River. The Kikuyu name, Kirinyaga or Kere-Nyaga, is rendered by Britannica as 'Mountain of Whiteness'.

As you climb Mount Kenya, the plants change.

First there are big forests, then tall bamboo. Higher up grow strange giant plants. At the very top there are only rocks, snow and ice. Elephants and buffalo live in the forests.

Climbing Mount Kenya is like traveling through different worlds. Britannica describes grassland on the plateau at its base. From about 1,800 meters, a ring of thick forest wraps around the mountain, with cedar and yellowwood trees. Higher up, bamboo takes over, then giant heather.

Above about 3,400 to 3,700 meters comes the Afro-alpine moorland, home to tussock grasses and strange giant plants such as giant groundsel and lobelias. Mosses and lichens grow up to about 4,600 meters, and above that there is only rock, ice and snow. In the forests and around the park live elephants, buffalo, black rhinoceroses and leopards.

Britannica's zonation: grassland with Acacia and Themeda on the basal plateau to the west and north; a ring of dense montane forest from about 1,800 to 3,000 m, with cedar and yellowwood on the drier western and northern flanks; bamboo from about 2,400 m, shrinking with height into giant heather; a transition at 3,400 to 3,700 m to Afro-alpine high moorland; mosses and lichens to about 4,600 m; then bare rock and ice. UNESCO adds Juniperus procera and Podocarpus in the drier lower zone, Cassipourea malosana in wetter areas, bamboo and Podocarpus milanjianus at 2,500 to 3,000 m, continuous vegetation to about 4,500 m and isolated vascular plants above 5,000 m.

UNESCO cites the evolution and ecology of the Afro-alpine flora as outstanding. The park and its surroundings hold elephant, buffalo, black rhinoceros and leopard, with rare species including the suni buck, a small antelope (Britannica). Through the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve, a 9.8 km corridor connects the mountain with the lowlands along the traditional migration route of the region's elephants.

Many families farm on the rich soil low on the mountain.

In 1899, a team of climbers first reached the very top. Today much of the mountain is a national park, where nature is protected.

The rich, fertile lower slopes of Mount Kenya are farmed by Kikuyu, Embu and Meru communities, Britannica says. The mountain's streams feed two of Kenya's rivers, the Tana and the Ewaso Ng'iro.

The first European to see the mountain was Johann Ludwig Krapf, in 1849. Explorers climbed partway up in 1887 and 1893, and in 1899 the British geographer Halford Mackinder, with the Swiss guides César Ollier and Joseph Brocherel, reached the summit. Mount Kenya National Park was created in 1949, and in 1997 the mountain became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Britannica notes that the fertile lower slopes are cultivated by the Kikuyu and the related Embu and Meru peoples, and that the radial drainage feeds the Tana and Ewaso Ng'iro rivers; UNESCO stresses protection of the mountain's watershed above about 2,000 to 2,500 m. Krapf sighted the mountain in 1849; Sámuel Teleki (1887) and the geologist John Walter Gregory (1893) climbed partway; Halford Mackinder, with César Ollier and Joseph Brocherel, made the first ascent in 1899. Nanyuki, about 190 km north of Nairobi by rail, and Naro Moru are the main bases for ascents.

Mount Kenya National Park (1949) covers about 718 km², including much of the mountain's lower skirts. The World Heritage property, inscribed in 1997, comprises the national park (Kenya Wildlife Service) and parts of the Mount Kenya Forest Reserve (Kenya Forest Service), later extended to include the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and Ngare Ndare Forest Reserve. UNESCO notes that forest loss, illegal grazing and poaching occur mainly outside the property, in its buffer zone.