Mount Elgon

Description

Mount Elgon is a towering extinct volcano, and is one of the highest mountains in Africa. Its crater is five miles across and almost 2,000 feet deep, and with Elgon having long been extinct, the crater now holds a large marsh whose waters flow to Lake Victoria, not far south. Elgon's eastern (Kenyan) slopes are included in the Mt. Elgon National Park. There is no permanent snow on Elgon. The mountain's slopes are densely forested, the lower slopes with bamboo, and the higher slopes with large heather, groundsel and lobelias. On the south side of the mountain, huge caves in the cliff walls once housed the Elgonyi tribe, from which the mountain got its name.