"As wide as all the world, great, high and unbelievably white in the sun was the square top of Kilimanjaro” wrote Ernest Hemingway, the great american writer. Rising abruptly from the open plains, Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa rising to 5,895 metres (19,344 feet) above sea level. One of the world’s highest free standing mountains, Mt. Kilimanjaro is composed of three extinct volcanoes: Kibo 5895 m (19344 ft.), Mawenzi 5149 m (16896 ft.), and Shira 3962 m (13000 ft.). It is one of Africa's classic images. Kilimanjaro is the highest walkable summit in the world. The diameter of its base is an incredible 40 miles. Situated near the town of Moshi in Northern Tanzania, the mountain rises from the dry plains, through a wide belt of forest and high alpine heath to an almost bare desert and finally the snow capped summit, Uhuru Peak, just 3 degrees south of the Equator. Kilimanjaro is a dormant, but not an extinct volcano. Ominous rumbles can sometimes be heard- and gases emerge from the fume holes in the crater. Although just three degrees south of the Equator, the peaks of both Kibo and Mawenzi have permanent caps of snow and ice. During their time on the mountain, climbers pass from tropical to arctic environments in just a few days. The various trails first pass through lush rainforests before reaching open moorland where giant lobelia and huge, cactus- like groundsel, grow. Above this moorland is the almost lunar landscape of an alpine desert, which stretches between the two peaks of Kibo, the flat-topped dome at the center, and Mawenzi, a group of jagged points and pinnacles on the eastern side. As Inhospitable as this ‘moonscape' may seem, animals such as herds of eland thrive here.