African Experts To Measure Peak
12:00 PM ET 09/20/99
ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) - Tanzanian experts announced that they will attempt to
resolve a nearly century-old dispute over the height of Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's
tallest peak. Specialists at Lands and Architectural College in this northern Tanzanian
city said in a statement they would determine the mountain's height by the end of the
year.
The measurements will be carried out with experts from Karlsruhe University and
Karlsruhe University of Technology in Germany, the statement said.
The scientists plan to use technology that recently established the height of
Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, at 29,026 feet, 300 feet lower than the
peak's previously accepted height.
Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, has two peaks Mawenzi and Kibo,
which was renamed Uhuru - ``freedom'' in Swahili - after Tanzania gained independence from
Britain in 1960. Hans Meyer, who first climbed Kibo in 1899, said the peak was 19,833 feet
high.
In 1904, British administrators in Kenya and German authorities in what was then
called Tanganyika put Kilimanjaro's height at 19,443 feet.
Two other explorers put the height at 19,569 feet and 19,684 feet, according to
documents available.
Tnzanian national park officials estimate 7,000 tourists will mark the end of
the new millennium by climbing Kilimanjaro between Dec. 22 and Jan. 15.
