Section 13: Mountains of Africa
1086 meters high
over 100 different ways to climb it
unique form of plant life
fire there in March 1999
burned 500 hectares
9,000 different indigenous plants
winters are cold and wet
summers are hot and dry
It is located in the central area of the Republic of South Africa. The Drakensburg forms a natural International border separating Lesotho and South Africa. Drakensberg’s change in weather is constant. The rainy days can last for several days. The coldfronts come in from the Southwest. It gets many blizzards that can occur for several days. Although there are many days with bad weather, it has very good weather too. Drakensberg has very sunny weather. The sunny weather is doing many very good for doing many activities. These include golf. You can also trout and bass fish, and boat. Along with land and sea, you can paraglide and hand glide. You can also gaze at the scenery. The Drakensberg Mountain has many natural features. The peaks can get over 3482 meters. There is very little plant life. Because of harsh weather, they are unable to grow. Some plants can grow through the harsh weather. Many of them are around the waterfalls. Animals can live there! Although animals can live there, there are very little because of less plant life. The vegetation is low because of the altitude. The weather effects everything, in good and bad ways.
One of the largest mountains in the Rift Valley is Mount Kilimanjaro. It has a valley elevation of 19,335 feet. Mount Kilimanjaro is also known as the mountain that last erupted recently after the last Ice Age. Now there is only steam and sulpher coming out of the cone. Mount Kilimanjaro is a famous landmark, including the melting ice cap. This ice cap is predicted to melt in 10-20 years because of global warming.
Mount Kilimanjaro standing at a humongous 19,335.6 feet is a giant strato volcano. It is located in the country of Tanzania in Africa. Some of the names it is called by the African people are old dinya, oibor, kilima, and njaro. What makes this volcano special is the fact that Kilimanjaro is a triple volcano. Kilimanjaro is part of an E –W belt. This belt contains 20 different volcanoes. Inside this belt is a wildlife refuge.
The Atlas Mountains are located in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The Atlas Mountains has been inhabited for thousands of years. The Atlas Mountains is located in the Mediterranean climate. The Atlas Mountains summers are very hot and harsh while the forest winters are heavily snowy. The Atlas Mountains have a skyline that stretches across the horizon creating inspiring beauty. The best climate seasons are late winter and spring (February through May) when the snow is still present but temperatures are comfortable. The Atlas Mountain vegetation includes palm trees, almond trees, and irrigation fields. The trees form into a canopy. As the elevation gets higher the trees grow taller. When the weather gets colder mosses and lichens start to form.
The Ruwenzori Range a.k.a the Mountains of the Moon are located along the western border of Uganda. They are eighty miles in length and thirty miles in width. One of the Nile’s sources was long thought to be from this range. An abundance of snow and rain occur in the Ruwenzori Range. Some of Africa’s most unusual and luxuriant vegetation is found here. First, there is the lobelia plant that is usually found only one foot in height but can reach up to twenty feet in the Mountains of the Moon. Other plants found in the Ruwenzori Range are the acacia, dry thorn scrub, euphorbia, and heath trees. The Mountains of the Moon are a chain of remote fold mountains rarely visible to onlookers because of the clouds and mist. If seen the Ruwenzori Range is truly a sight.
The Karoo is a central high plateau. It is located in South Africa. This plateau is surrounded by the mighty mountain chains of the escarpment. The endless grassland of the Karoo gets as little as 400mm of rain annually. This rainfall is mainly in the summer. Winter months are almost completely dry. Karoo is a great place to travel between May and September. Usually during the day it is warm and sunny (20-25 degrees celsius) At night it gets pleasantly cool. Animals in the Great Karoo include crocadiles, zebras and many different types of bird species.
History
The Great Karoo approximately 250 million years ago was a vast inland sea. Reptiles and amphibians prospered due to the evaporation of water that left a swamp. The Hottentots and Bushmen (last stone age people) shared the "place of Great Dryness” Both groups of people differed in culture and lifestyle. During the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902 three republican commands reinforced by the rebels from the cape colony conducted wide spread operations through out the Karoo. Numerous abandoned blockhouses can still be seen at strategic locations in the Great Karoo.
Mount Kenya is one of the few mountains in Africa that is a dormant volcano. There is a great variety of plant and animal life on this mountain. It’s amazing what u can learn about a mountain. Did you know that Mount Kenya is between 1200m and 1850m tall (altitude)? The vegetation is mainly dry with upland forest. Also, dense belts of bamboo mainly dominate the higher altitudes. Podocarpus also dominates at high and low elevations, and in the southwest and northeast cassipourea malosana predominates. There is wide variety of insects on Mount Kenya as well. There is the stick insect and the bumblebee. There are also butterflies and grasshoppers. There is also the butterfly and grasshopper. There are a wide variety of reptiles on Mount Kenya too. There is the green mamba, one of the most poisonous snakes in Africa. There is also, the alpine meadow lizard, the mantane viper, another poisonous snake, and a variety of other lizards and skinks. That is all of the plant and vegetation life on Mount Kenya.
The Livingstone range is a band of highlands in German East Africa farming.
The eastern border of the rift valley of lane Nyasa at the northern end of the
Lake. David Livingstone was born in 1813 and died in 1873. The Livingstone’s
were an important family of merchants landowners and political leaders in
Early America, especially in New York and New Jersey where several family
members played key roles in the American Revolution. He arrived in Africa
as a medical missionary in 1841 .In 1851 he discovered the Zambezi River and
four years later the famous Victoria falls. In the end of April 1864 Livingstone
reached Zanzibar and on the 23rd of July Livingston arrived in England. When
David Livingston died native followers carried his body to the coast where it was sent to England and buried in Westminster abbey.
Cameroon Mountain is an isolated volcanic mass, covering 800 square miles and towering higher than any other mountain in Western Africa. It is also the nearest African mountain to any seacoast, as it rises from the waters of the Gulf of Guinea, a spectacular site when viewed from sea. The Cameroon Mount, active volcano, is 13,354ft (4070 meters) high, in the Cameroon highlands, West Cameroon; highest point in West Africa. The western side of the mountain receives an average annual rainfall of more than 400 inch. (1016 cm) and is covered with tropical rain forest. Cocoa, banana, rubber, and tea plantations are found on the lower slopes. The volcano last erupted in 1999.
Mount Cameroon is the highest mountain in West Africa, raising more of less straight from the coast through tropical rainforest to a bare summit, which is cold and windy and uncommonly brushed with snow. It is not dormant and sent lava flowing down almost to the sea only last year. Although it is so close to the sea it can rarely be seen from the coast as clouds gather round its lower slopes and Debundha at its southwest corner is reputed to be the second wettest place in the world.
Mount Cameroon is a poorly studied stratovolcano located in the nation of Cameroon, 180 miles west of the capital of Yaounde. This volcano is also known locally as Mount Faka and “chariot of the Gods.” It is on e of Cameroon’s main tourist attractions. Thousands of people participate in a race up its rocky slopes each year. It is the highest peak in West and Central Africa. Cameroon has erupted six times this century, most recently in the spring of 1999. Eruptions generally occur on the flanks of the volcano and produce small cinder cones and lava flows. Cameroon was the site of one of the earliest recorded volcanic eruptions—in the 5th century BC—observed by a Carthaginian ship captain while sailing down the Atlantic Coast of Africa.
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