Mount Kilimanjaro (3)

Mount Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira, is a dormant volcanic
mountain in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in
the world at 5,895 metres or 19,341 feet above sea level (the Uhuru Peak/Kibo Peak).[4]

Geology[edit]
Kilimanjaro is composed of three distinct volcanic cones: Kibo, the highest at 5,895 m (19,341 ft);
Mawenzi at 5,149 m (16,893 ft); and Shira, the shortest at 3,962 m (13,000 ft). Uhuru Peak is the
highest summit on Kibo's crater rim.
Kilimanjaro is a large stratovolcano. Of its three peaks, Mawenzi and Shira are extinct, while Kibo,
the highest, is dormant and could erupt again. The last major eruption has been dated to between
150,000 and 200,000 years ago.[5]
Although dormant, Kibo has gas-emitting fumaroles in its crater. Several collapses and landslides
have occurred on Kibo in the past, one creating the area known as the Western Breach.

History[edit]

Name[edit]
The origin of the name "Kilimanjaro" is not precisely known, but a number of theories exist.
European explorers had adopted the name by 1860 and reported that "Kilimanjaro" was the
mountain's Kiswahili name.[6] But according to the 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopdia, the
name of the mountain was "Kilima-Njaro".[7]
Johann Ludwig Krapf wrote in 1860 that Swahilis along the coast called the mountain "Kilimanjaro".
Although he did not support his claim,[8] he claimed that "Kilimanjaro" meant either "mountain of
greatness" or "mountain of caravans". Under the latter meaning, "Kilima" meant "mountain" and
"Jaro" possibly meant "caravans".[6]
Jim Thompson claimed in 1885, although he also did not support his claim, [8]

The term Kilima-Njaro has generally been understood to mean the Mountain (Kilima) of Greatness
(Njaro). This is probably as good a derivation as any other, though not improbably it may mean the
"White" mountain, as I believe the term "Njaro" has in former times been used to denote whiteness,
and though this application of the word is now obsolete on the coast, it is still heard among some of
the interior tribes. Either translation is equally applicable.... By the Wa-chaga[,] the mountain is not
known under one name, the two masses which form it being respectively named Kibo and
Kimawenzi.[9]
According to a website owned by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, "njaro" is an ancient Kiswahili word
for "shining".[10] Similarly, Krapf wrote that a chief of the Wakamba people, whom he visited in 1849,
"had been to Jagga and had seen the Kima jaJeu, mountain of whiteness, the name given by the
Wakamba to Kilimanjaro...."[11] More correctly in the Kikamba language, this would be Kiima Kyeu,
and this possible derivation has been popular with several investigators. [8]
Others have assumed that "Kilima" is Kiswahili for "mountain". The problem with this assumption is
that "Kilima" actually means "hill" and is, therefore, the diminutive of "Mlima", the proper Kiswahili
word for mountain. However, "[i]t is ... possible ... that an early European visitor, whose knowledge of
[Kiswahili] was not extensive, changed mlima to kilima by analogy with the two Chagga names; Kibo
and Kimawenzi."[8]
A different approach is to assume that the "Kileman" part of Kilimanjaro comes from the Kichagga
"kileme", which means "which defeats", or "kilelema", which means "which has become difficult or
impossible". The "Jaro" part would "then be derived from njaare, a bird, or, according to other
informants, a leopard, or, possibly from jyaro a caravan."
According to one [Wachagga] informant, the old men tell the story that long ago the Wachagga,
having seen the snowy dome, decided to go up to investigate; naturally, they did not get very far.
Hence the name: kilemanjaare, or kilemanyaro, or possibly kilelemanjaare etc.- "which defeats," or
which is impossible for, the bird, the leopard, or the caravan. This is attractive as being entirely made
up of [Wachagga] elements based on an imaginable situation, but the fact remains that the name
Kilimanjaro is not, and apparently never has been, current among the Wachagga as the name of the
mountain. Is this then only, as other Wachagga suggest, a latter-day attempt to find a [Wachagga]
explanation when pressed to do so by a foreign enquirer? Is it perhaps arguable that the early
porters from the coast hearing the Wachagga say kilemanjaare or kilemajyaro, meaning simply that it
was impossible to climb the mountain, imagined this to be the name of the mountain, and associated
it with their own kilima? Did they then report to the European leaders of the expedition that the name
of the mountain was, their version of the Kichagga, which, further assimilated by the European
hearer, finally became standardised as Kilimanjaro?[8]

In the 1880s, the mountain became a part of German East Africa and was called "Kilima-Ndscharo"
in German following the Kiswahili name components.[12]
On 6 October 1889, Hans Meyer reached the highest summit on the crater ridge of Kibo. He named
it "Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spitze" ("Kaiser Wilhelm peak").[13] That name apparently was used
until Tanzania was formed in 1964,[14] when the summit was renamed "Uhuru", meaning "Freedom
Peak" in Kiswahili.[15] The Kaiser Wilhelm-Spitze, with its altitude of 5895 meters (19,340 ft.) was
known at that time as the highest mountain of the German Empire.

Climbing history[edit]

From the UK National Archives

According to the famous English geographer Halford Mackinder: "It was the missionary Rebmann of
Mombasa who, in 1848, first reported the existence of Kilimanjaro." [16] In 1861, the German officer
Baron Carl Claus von der Decken and the young British geologist Richard Thornton (18381863)
made a first attempt to climb Kibo,[17] but "got no farther than 8,200 feet"[18] (2,500 meters). In 1862,
Von der Decken tried a second time together with Otto Kersten. They reached a height of 14,000
feet (4,280 meters).[19][20]
In 1887, during his first attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the German geology professor Hans
Meyer reached the base of Kibo, but was forced to turn back, not having the equipment necessary to

handle the deep snow and ice on Kibo. The following year, Meyer planned another attempt
with cartographer Oscar Baumann, but the mission was aborted due to consequences of
the Abushiri Revolt. Meyer and Baumann were captured and held hostage, and only escaped after a
ten thousand rupees ransom had been paid.[21]
In 1889 Meyer returned to Kilimanjaro with the celebrated Austrian mountaineer Ludwig
Purtscheller for a third attempt. Their climbing team included two local headmen, nine porters, a
cook, and a guide. The success of this attempt, which started on foot from Mombasa, was based on
the establishment of many campsites with food supplies so that multiple attempts at the top could be
made without having to descend too far. Meyer and Purtscheller pushed to near the crater rim on
October 3, but turned around exhausted from hacking footsteps in the icy slope. Three days later
they reached the highest summit on the southern rim of the crater on Purtscheller's 40th birthday
(October 6, 1889). They were the first to confirm that Kibo has a crater, which was filled with ice at
the time. After descending to the saddle between Kibo and Mawenzi, Meyer and Purtscheller
attempted to climb the more technically challenging Mawenzi next, but could only reach a 5096 m
high subsidiary peak (later to be named Klute Peak) before retreating due to illness. On October 18,
they reascended Kibo to enter and study the crater, cresting the rim at Hans Meyers Notch. In total,
Meyer and Purtscheller spent 16 days above 4,200 m during their expedition. [21][22]