page_title: Mount Kenya
section_title: European sighting
hierarchical_section_title: Mount Kenya / History / European sighting
context_page_description: Mount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second-highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian, Nelion and Point Lenana. Mount Kenya is located in the former Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya, now Meru, Embu, Laikipia, Kirinyaga, Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties, about 16.5 kilometres south of the equator, around 150 km north-northeast of the capital Nairobi. Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya.
  Mount Kenya is a stratovolcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African Rift. Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the centre. There are currently 11 small glaciers, which are shrinking rapidly, and may be gone forever by 2050. The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya.
  There are several vegetation bands from the base to the summit. The lower slopes are covered by different types of forest. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax.
context_section_description: The first European to report seeing Mount Kenya was Dr Johann Ludwig Krapf, a German missionary, from Kitui,
  a town 160 km (100 mi) away from the mountain. The sighting was made on 3 December 1849,
  a year after the first sighting of Mount Kilimanjaro by a European.
  Krapf was told by the Embu people that lived around the mountain that they did not ascend high enough on the mountain because of the intense cold and the white matter that rolled down the mountains with a loud noise. This led him to infer that glaciers existed on the mountain. It was Krapf who gave the mountain the name "Kenya", but the derivation of this is not known with certainty (see the various local names below, some of which are similar). Wangari Maathai tells the following story about the naming: Krapf and Johannes Rebmann asked their guide, a member of the Kamba community, who was carrying a gourd, what they called the mountain, and the guide, believing that the Germans were referring to the gourd, replied kĩĩ-nyaa, which became the name of the mountain and then the country.
  Krapf also noted that the rivers flowing from Mount Kenya, and other mountains in the area, were continuously flowing. This was very different from the other rivers in the area, which swelled up in the wet season and completely dried up after the rainy season had ended. As the streams flowed even in the driest seasons he concluded that there must be a source of water up on the mountain, in the form of glaciers. He believed the mountain to be the source of the White Nile.
  In 1851 Krapf returned to Kitui. He travelled 65 kilometres (40 mi) closer to the mountain, but did not see it again. In 1877 Hildebrandt was in the Kitui area and heard stories about the mountain, but also did not see it. Since there were no confirmations to back up Krapf's claim people began to be suspicious.
  Eventually, in 1883, Joseph Thomson passed close by the west side of the mountain and confirmed Krapf's claim. He diverted his expedition and reached 1,737 m (5,700 ft) up the slopes of the mountain but had to retreat because of trouble with local people. However, the first European exploration high onto the mountain was achieved in 1887 by Count Samuel Teleki. He managed to reach 4,350 m (14,270 ft) on the south western slopes. On this expedition Teleki mistakenly believed he had found the crater of a volcano.
  In 1892, Teleki and von Höhnel returned to the eastern side, but were unable to get through the forest.
  Finally, in 1893, an expedition managed to ascend Mount Kenya as far as the glaciers. This expedition was traveling from the coast to Lake Baringo in the Rift Valley, and was led by Dr John W Gregory, a British geologist. They managed to ascend the mountain to around 4,730 m (15,520 ft), and spent several hours on the Lewis Glacier with their guide. On his return to Britain, Gregory published papers and a narrative account of his achievements.
  George Kolb, a German physician, made expeditions in 1894 and 1896 and was the first to reach the moorlands on the east side of the mountain. More exploration occurred after 1899 when the Uganda Railway was completed as far as the future site of Nairobi.
caption: Count Samuel Teleki was the first European to set foot on Mount Kenya. His expedition reached 4,350 m (14,270 ft).
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