Mount Kenya
Mount Kenya is a gigantic extinct volcano lying south of the Equator in central Kenya (the country is named after the mountain). It reaches a height of 5,199 m (17,058 feet) and is Africa's second highest mountain. Its slopes reveal evidence of numerous explosive episodes, and the central core is eroded to form several snow-capped, rocky peaks. Numerous glaciers emerge from cirques on the upper slopes, which are covered with glacial debris. Tropical forests on the lower slopes, the home of much wildlife, are threatened by the advance of agriculture.

Mount Kilimanjaro
Kilimanjaro, in north-east Tanzania, Africa's highest mountain. An extinct volcano, it rises at Mawenzi Peak to 5,149 m (16,896 feet) and at Kibo Peak to 5,895 m (19,340 feet). The two peaks are snow-capped and joined by a broad col. The mountain is drained by a number of streams that form a radial pattern, some feeding the Galana and Pangani rivers, while others peter out on the plains below. The lower slopes are intensively cultivated, but there are forests and grassland above.

Mount Kilimanjaro

Ngorongoro Crater
Ngorongoro Crater is a huge extinct volcanic crater in the Great Rift Valley, north-east Tanzania, 326 sq. km. (126 sq. miles) in area. It is the centre of a wildlife conservation area, established in 1959, which includes the Olduvai Gorge.

Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam is the former capital (until 1974) and chief port of Tanzania, founded in 1866 by the Sultan of Zanzibar, who built his summer palace there; pop. (1988) 1,360,850. In Arabic its name means 'haven of peace'. It handles most of Zambia's trade since the building of the Tanzam railway, as well as Tanzania's, and has oil-refining, textile, pharmaceutical, and food industries.

Zanzibar
Zanzibar, one of two smallish islands (the other being Pemba) belonging to Tanzania, lies on a coral reef some 32 km (20 miles) off the East African coast.

History Little of Zanzibar is known in early times: c.1100 it was importing pottery from the Persian Gulf and became a base for Arab traders. In 1506, when the Portuguese demanded tribute, it was poor and thinly populated. The Portuguese established a trading post and a Catholic mission, but were displaced by the sultanate of Oman who took it in 1698. It began to prosper c.1770 as an entrepot for Arab and French slave traders. Following its development by Said ibn Sultan, his son Majid became ruler of Zanzibar strongly guided by the British consul Sir John Kirk (1866-87). German trading interests were developing in these years, but Britain and Germany divided Zanzibar's mainland territories between them and, by the Treaty of Zanzibar (1890), Germany conceded British autonomy in exchange for control of the North Sea island of Heligoland. Zanzibar became a British protectorate. In December 1963 it became an independent member of the Commonwealth, but in January 1964 the last sultan was deposed and a republic proclaimed. Union with Tanganyika, to form the United Republic of Tanzania, followed in April. Zanzibar retained its own administration and a certain degree of autonomy, and, after the assassination of Sheikh Karume in 1972, Aboud Jumbe and the ruling Afro-Shirazi Party ruthlessly put down all forms of political opposition until growing resentment forced Jumbe's resignation in 1984, Ali Hassan Mwinyi succeeding him. When the latter became President of Tanzania in 1985, there was a new constitution, and Idris Abdul Wakil was appointed President, succeeded in 1990 by Salmin Amour. A banned Islamic fundamentalist movement, Bismillahi, has steadily gained support on the island. The Tanzanian government, fearing a threat to national unity, revoked the island's membership of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in 1993. In presidential elections, held in October 1995, Amour narrowly defeated a challenge from the Civic United Front, which advocated greater autonomy for Zanzibar within Tanzania.

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