| Ruwenzori Range |
Website Links For Range |
Information AboutRuwenzori Range |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT RUWENZORI RANGE | |
| great rift valley | |
| mountain ranges of africa | |
| mountains of uganda | |
| mountains of the democratic republic of the congo | |
|
The mountains formed as a result of uplift on the flanks of the Albertine (western) Rift of the East African Rift, the African part of the Great Rift Valley . The range is about 120 km (75 mi) long and 65 km (40 mi) wide. It consists of six massifs separated by deep gorges: Mount Baker , Mount Emin , Mount Gessi , Mount Luigi Di Savoia , Mount Speke , and Mount Stanley . Mount Stanley is the largest and has several subsidiary summits, with Mount Margherita being the highest point. The rock is metamorphic, and the mountains are believed to have been tilted and squeezed upwards by plate movement. They are in an extremely humid area, and frequently enveloped in clouds. The Ruwenzori are known for their Vegetation , ranging from Tropical Rainforest through alpine Meadow s to snow; and for their Animal population, including Forest Elephant s, several Primate species and many Endemic Bird s. One zone is known for its six metre high Heather covered in Moss , another for its three metre Blue Lobelia s. Most of the range is now a World Heritage Site and is covered jointly by The Rwenzori Mountains National Park in Uganda and the Parc National Des Virunga in Congo . In 1906 the Rwenzori had 43 named glaciers distributed over 6 mountains with a total area of 7.5 sq. km., about half the total glacier area in Africa. By 2005, less than half of these survive, on only 3 mountains, with an area of about 1.5 sq.km. The first European sighting of the Ruwenzori was by the expedition of Henry Morton Stanley in 1889 (the aforementioned clouds are considered to explain why two decades of previous explorers had not seen them). On June 7 , the expedition's second-in-command and its military commander, William Stairs , climbed to 10,677 feet, the first non-African ever to climb in the range. The first ascent to the summit was made by the Duke Of The Abruzzi in 1906 . REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|
|
|