The peak of the mountain is covered by glacier giving it a white cap. Mount Kenya stood at 5,199-meter-high above sea level with its peaks located immediately south of the equator. It is the second highest mountain in Africa after Kilmanjaro. Some opine that Mount Kenya, an extinct volcano, must have been more than 6,000m high.

Years of weathering it is believed, removed the dust and achieve revealing two jagged peaks that are over 5,100m high and a third that is 4,985m high.

Flora and Fauna

Over the years, melting ice has turned the desert of lava into a large seedbed for diverse forms of flora. The lower slope is covered with dense forests. The trees found here include cedar, camphor and yellowwood which are good for manufacturing furniture. There are also tall bamboo trees, which fill up the forest with heights over six meters.

Mammals such as lions, leopards, zebras, bushbuck, water buck, Cape buffalo, elephant and black rhinos find comfort in this mountainous habitat. Smaller animals like Sykes monkeys, tree hyraxes, Colobus monkeys and many species of rodents also dwell here.

If you are interested in watching birds then you can be rest assured that you are at the right place. They are vast and varied in type. They include the crowned eagles, long-crested hawk eagles, white-backed vultures, black kites, mountain buzzards and red-tailed augur buzzards. The crimson-cloured Hartlaub's turacos, silvery species of sunbirds are constant features of this forest.

At about 3,000m, a large unending moorland is revealed. The ground here is covered like a mat by tussock grasses, the unique cabbage groundsel - that flowers once in 20 years - is found here.

Few animals are found in this lofty terrain, and most of them live there for just part of the year. The rabbit-sized mammal, rock hyraxes are the only full time resident of this terrain.

The Peaks

The highest points Batain (5,199m) and Nelion (5,188m) are shaped like two large horns. They consist of huge, black volcanic boulders. Some of the glaciers at this peak are visible from Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, 130km away.

Fortune Ihunweze the author of this article is a professional Environmental Resources Manager. He is very vast in environmental management issues and has written many articles on the environment. His website which covers just about everything you would need to know about the environment is located at: http://www.environmenthighlight.com

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