Kilimanjaro is like an island and is a dormant volcano. It lies 400km south of the equator, just inside Tanzania's border with Kenya. In the lower reaches, there is rainforest, a tropical alpine zone, and beautiful unspoilt moorland. Above this tower the cliffs and glaciers that can be seen for miles around.

In 1886, Queen Victoria gave the mountain to her German grandson Wilhelm as a birthday present. This explains the kink in the otherwise straight boundary between the two countries. After World War 1 the mountain became a British asset once again until Tanganyika's independence and the birth of Tanzania in 1961.