Mount Kenya
African stratovolcano
Mount Kenya (Meru: Kĩrĩmaara, Kikuyu: Kĩrĩmanyaga, or "Kīrī-nyaga", Kamba: Ki nyaa, Embu: Kĩ nyaga, or "Kirinyaga") is the second highest mountain in Africa and the namesake of the country Kenya. Located about 150 km (90 mi) north-northeast of the capital of Nairobi and just 16.5 kilometres (10.3 miles) south of the equator, the mountain's highest peaks are Batian (5,199 m), Nelion (5,188 m), and Point Lenana (4,985 m). Historically situated in the former Eastern and Central provinces, the massif now serves as the intersection of Meru, Embu, Kirinyaga, Nyeri, and Tharaka Nithi counties. The area was officially gazetted as the Mount Kenya National Park in 1949 and was later designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997 for its outstanding natural beauty and ecological significance. Today, the park and its surrounding forest reserve are managed by the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Kenya Forest Service as a critical sanctuary for endangered species and a primary water tower for the region.
Mount Kenya is a volcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African Rift. Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m (23,000 ft) 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 peak. There are currently 11 small glaciers, which are shrinking rapidly, and may disappear by 2050.
The public source identifies “Mount Kenya” as african stratovolcano. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mount, Kenya and African.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q172070. VIAF identifies the subject as 236811162. The Library of Congress control number is sh85072011. Authority coordinates are -0.100, 37.200. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1997 and 2050.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mount Kenya” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.