Perhaps the most famous mountain in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro (or “shining mountain”), is found in Tanzania Africa. Kilimanjaro was made famous to the west by Ernest Hemingway’s various stories in which the mountain was featured. More recently, the melting of the glaciers and snow caps on Kilimanjaro has been used as evidence of global warming. Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the holy grails for all mountain climbers. Two other popular mountains for serious mountain climbers are Mount Kenya and the Rwenzori Mountains in central Africa.

Table Mountain which overlooks Cape Town in South Africa is a popular tourist destination. This flat-topped mountain is part of a national park making it a prominent landmark. Table Mountain’s major feature is its level plateau measuring around three kilometers from side to side with steep cliffs surrounding it. The mountain’s highest point (3,563 feet above sea level) is on the eastern end of the plateau where the Maclear’s Beacon is situated. The Beacon is a stone cairn constructed by Sir Thomas Maclear in 1865 for a trigonometrical survey. Visitors going there usually take the cableway to go to the mountain’s plateau. Table mountain also features unique species of plants and animals such as the dassie or rock hyrax, porcupines, mongooses, snakes and tortoises.

The Magaliesberg mountain features a flat top consisting of quartzite rock and red colored sediments. Its slopes and summits are filled with trees. Numerous streams are also located on the ridge. In the southern hills lie the village of Magaliesberg which got its name from Magali, the chief of the Po people, who lived in the area during the arrival of the voortrekkers. The mountains’ major crop is tobacco while citrus and tropical fruits are also grown in the valleys. Magaliesberg mountain is home to vultures who are normally seen flying alongside local hang-gliders from time to time.

In South Africa, the highest mountain range is the Drakensberg located in the eastern Transvaal region. This mountain range measures approximately 250 kilometers towards the country’s border with Lesotho. Drakensberg boasts of its Blyde River Canyon featuring 6,500-foot tall jagged cliffs on each side of the Blyde River. What’s also spectacular about this is that the cliffs form a series of rock columns with hanging vegetation and waterfalls. This is only one of South Africa’s amazing landscapes that also include deserts, dense tropical forest along the coast and unique savannas.