About Kilimanjaro

Kilimanjaro - the word means "shining mountain" in Swahili. The name is an appropriate one, for when the sun's rays strike the icy peaks of Kilimanjaro, the mountaintop sparkles with a beautiful mosaic of light.

Kilimanjaro stands at a staggering elevation of 19,345 feet. As one of the seven summits, Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest peak and also the tallest free-standing mountain in the world. Located in Tanzania in East Africa, the glaciers of Kilimanjaro were once believed to be nothing but a myth, because how, people thought, could glaciers exist of all places, in Africa?

However, Kilimanjaro may not be a "shining mountain" for long. Based on scientific studies, the ice is melting at a rapid rate due to global warming. Most believe that the glaciers will be completely gone within 20 years. Kilimanjaro's ice fields will then return to it's place in myth.

People from all across the globe have been coming to Mount Kilimanjaro in increasingly record numbers to scale the mountain. In 2007, more than 35,000 people climbed Kilimanjaro. The number that made it to the top, of course, is a different story.