"As wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievably white in the sun, was the square top of Mount Kilimanjaro" Ernest Hemingway

Kilimanjaro lies in North East Tanzania, close to the border with Kenya, standing at only 3 degrees south of Equator (330 km). Kilima Njaro means Shining Mountains in Swahili language. Masai people call it Oldoinyo Oibor (White Mountain).

Kilimanjaro is the largest on an East-West belt of about 20 volcanoes near the southern end of the African Rift Valley. Also prominent in this belt are Ngorongoro caldera and Meru. Kilimanjaro is also one of the largest free standing mountains in the world. The mountain rises majestically from an open plain close to the Indian Ocean, and its great size and height strongly influence the climate, vegetation, animal life and the climbing conditions.

It includes Africa's highest peak, The Uhuru Peak on the volcano Kibo. This mountain is a giant dormant conic volcano, with fumaroles emitting steam and sulfur in the crater on the main summit of Kibo. Kibo is also its youngest peak. Other important peaks are Shira (3962 m) and Mawenzi (5149 m) (the third highest peak in Africa), older cons jagged from erosion.

The proximity to the Great Rift Valley - seen as a possible birthplace of humankind - gives Kilimanjaro an awesome mystique. One can imagine the mountain towering above our ancestors.

Since the Stone Age, the area of Kilimanjaro was habited by Khoi-San (Bushmen-like people) groups of hunters-gatherers. The later arrival of technologically advanced populations pushed them away from this area. Around 2000 BC, Cushites people started their migration towards south from the North East Africa and reached the area. Later, Masai people from Nile area came with their herds. Later on, in the 16th century, Chaga farmers (a bantu speaking people) arrived from Central Africa and brought highly successful agricultural methods with them, colonizing the slopes of the mountain and amalgamating the cushites within their cultures.

Due to the equatorial location, as well as to the huge height, Kilimanjaro presents every type of climate on Earth, from tropical to polar. This leads to an array of ecosystems from base to top.

The hot plains surrounding the mountains are covered by semiarid scrub land thick with African savanna fauna. The lower slopes of the mountain are heavily cultivated, particularly those from the south, which receive plenty of rainfall. Elsewhere lower rainfall, coupled with the porosity of the lava soils, make conditions less suitable for cultivation. The forest belt, which completely encircles the mountain and extends from about 1800m to 2900m, provides the best conditions for plant life. Above the forest belt, the porous soils and lower rainfall result in a much sparser vegetation with semi-desert conditions prevailing above the 4000m.

The cultivated belt contains many small holdings (shambas) where bananas and various vegetables are grown. The area is also suitable for coffee and there are several major plantations.

The southern, wetter cloud forests contain camphor, podocarpus, fig and other trees; lush undergrowth contains many giant ferns and Usnea (old man's beard) drapes everything. Vines, mimulopsis and a multitude of flowers can be found in valleys and in clearer areas. The northern, drier forests contain podocarpus, junipers and olives. In contrast to Mount Kenya, few large animals are found in this area, though colobus and blue monkeys and also hyraxes can often be seen, but other inhabitants such as smaller antelopes (duykers, bushbucks) and leopards are very rare. Many colourful birds are found here, the most noticeable being the Hornbill and the Turaco (Banana eaters).

The forests end abruptly without a bamboo zone as found on most other East African mountains. Above, the rapidly thinning giant heather zone leads to the upper moorlands; here, the giant groundsels and altitude tropical mountain areas can be found. There are few animals other than rodents, though leopard spoor can often be seen. Eagles and buzzards soar high above and smaller birds, such as the alpine chat and the streaky seed eater, can also be seen. In the higher moorland and the pine zones, only few tufts of grass, mosses and lichen are found, together with occasional flowers, such as the everlasting Helichrysum, Lobelia and Senecio. Above the 5000 m, the peaks are barren and frigid.
Kilimanjaro National Park takes in the area above 2800 m. The Park has six corridors through the Kilimanjaro Forest Reserve.

The lack of bamboo forests in Kilimanjaro is something unusual. The missing bamboo is caused by a lack of elephants. Elephants are needed to create disturbance, which encourages bamboo regeneration. On Kilimanjaro, the lower slopes of the mountain are all cultivated, preventing elephants from ascending into the forest "There are elephants on the dry side of the mountain" says Andreas Hemp of Germany' Bayreuth University, "but the valleys are too steep and deep for elephants to traverse to the wet side where the bamboo could grow".

Rare plants were found in forest relicts, in the deepest valleys of the cultivated lower areas, suggesting that a rich forest flora once covered Mt. Kilimanjaro. The plants included a forest tree 40 m high that was new to science. "Kilimanjaro has long been excluded from the tropical rainforest biodiversity hotspot of Tanzania, but these exciting finds change the whole way we think about forest diversity of eastern Africa" said Jon Lovett, an expert in African biodiversity at the University of York.

However, the forests of Kilimanjaro are changing. Fires and logging have had a major impact on the forests. Fire, in particular, is reducing the extent of the highest cloud forests. "The cloud forests are draped in moss and are an important water source as they catch moisture from the mist which shrouds them" explains Hemp "when they are burnt the hydrology of the whole mountain is affected".

Kilimanjaro was renowned for its glaciers, and an example of the presence of glaciers near the Equator. But recent events have caught global attention. The glaciers that have covered the top of the mountain are rapidly disappearing. Over the past century, their volume has dropped over 80 %. In 2002, the edge of the ice fields was 17 m higher than 40 years earlier. It is predicted that Kilimanjaro's ice would be gone between 2015 and 2020. In March 2005, it was reported that the peak was almost bare.

The cause of this decline is in dispute. According to Douglas R. Hardy, a climatologist at the University of Massachusetts, forest reduction in the areas surrounding Kilimanjaro, and not global warming, might be the strongest human influence on glacial recession. "Clearing for agriculture and forest fires-often caused by honey collectors trying to smoke bees out of their hives-have greatly reduced the surrounding forests," he says. The loss of foliage causes less moisture to be pumped into the atmosphere, leading to reduced cloud cover and precipitation and increased solar radiation and glacial evaporation.

The loss of Kilimanjaro's ice fields will bring the disappearing of the main tourist attraction of the area, but also important climatological and hydrological implications for the local populations which depend on water from the ice fields during the dry season and monsoon failures. In some areas that are no longer permanently frozen, the rockslides provoke accidents. Four people have died in January 2006 and the government closed one route.

Kilimanjaro is indeed a beautiful and fascinating volcano. But it's no longer white and shining. Its symbol, the "Snows of Kilimanjaro", is history now...