How Tall Is Mount Kilimanjaro In Tanzania
The Height of Mt Kilimanjaro Tanzania.
Official height of Mount, Kilimanjaro, 5895 m tall but It may surprise you to know that Mount Kilimanjaro’s height has changed several times in the past years.
Well the actual height of Mount Kilimanjaro has not changed but the official figures for it has. Even today there are several numbers to choose from for the altitude of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania which are;
5895 m, 5893 m or 5892 m
How did it came to that and then take your pick!
Establishing the Height of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania
Sign at Uhuru Peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, stating the official height of Mount. Kilimanjaro Tanzania.
It all started at 1889, when Dr. Hans Meyer on his third attempt officially became the first person to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. (It took 20 years before a second climber would conquer the full height of Kilimanjaro.)
Well, when Hans Meyer returned from his climb he went on to tell the world, How tall is mount Kilimanjaro that he had climbed to 19,833 ft or 6045 m. We now know that that height was exaggerated.
The colonial authorities in Germany corrected these figure to 5892 metres and that was the new official height of Kilimanjaro until 1952.
In 1952 Mt Kilimanjaro was mapped by British cartographers. The new official height of Mt. Kilimanjaro altitude was 5895 metres or 19340 ft!
This is how tall Mount Kilimanjaro height written on the sign at Uhuru Peak itself 5895m. And it is also the figure that you will find in most resources and information documents about Kilimanjaro including our website.
Except UNEP/WCMC (United Nations Environment Programme/World Conservation Monitoring Centre), in their official fact sheet about Mount Kilimanjaro National Park, it states the height of Kilimanjaro as 5893 metres high.
Actual height for Mount Kilimanjaro?
Since 1952 technology has obviously improved massively. So a team of specialists measured again the height of Kilimanjaro in 1999 using the GPS technology. GPS technology that had made Mt. Everest shrink a few metres down. And also did Mount. Kilimanjaro fate…
5892.55 metres was the height. Mount Kilimanjaro height had shrunk by 2.45 metres.
Technology improve fast in 2008 the exercise was repeated measuring how tall is Mount Kilimanjaro. GPS and gravimeter methods gave results that Kilimanjaro is now only 5,891.8 metres high (19,330 ft)!
It is wise to assume that this latest reading is the most accurate figure.
What’s not clear is whether the height loss is a result of Kilimajaro shrinking or just the result of the out dated technology of the past. Maybe it’s a combination of both two.
So far everybody is still referring to Mount Kilimanjaro as being 5895 metres high because it’s the figure at the Uhuru Peak.
If that Mount Kilimanjaro height is good enough to appear on the UNESCO world heritage listing for Kilimanjaro National Park then it is perfect enough for me.
So How Tall Is Mount Kilimanjaro?
Official Mount Kilimanjaro height: 5895 m – 19340 ft – by Kilimanjaro National Park.
Other Mt. Kilimanjaro height: 5892.55 m – 19332 ft – by UNEP/WCMC fact sheet.
Most accurate Mount Kilimanjaro height: 5891.8 m – 19330 ft – according to Mount Kilimanjaro 2008 Precise Height Measurement Expedition.
The Height of other Kilimanjaro’s Two Other Peaks
Mawenzi at 5,149 m or 16,890 ft; (the third highest peak in Africa after Mount Kenya.)
Shira at 3,962 m or 13,000 ft.
