Tanzania is rich in natural beauty and history. The highest point in Tanzania (and Africa) is Mount Kilimanjaro which reaches 5,895 meters (almost 20,000 feet) while the great Rift Valley runs across Tanzania from north to south. Tanzania borders two great lakes, Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika, which is the world’s second deepest lake.
In 1856 John Hanning Speke and Richard Francis Burton were commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society to find the source of the Nile. Speke claimed (correctly) that Lake Victoria was the Nile’s source. East Africa has been called “the cradle of mankind”. Rock art found in Tanzania dates back to the stone age.
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area in Tanzania is a huge caldera which is home to many wild animals, some of whom join the large herds that migrate from the Serengeti to Kenya each year. An annual migration of gazelles, wildebeest and zebras (followed by their predators) is made to find water. “Serengeti” is derived from the Maasai word for “endless plains”.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley is particularly remembered for his commission from the New York Herald to find David Livingstone who was presumed to be in Tanzania. When they finally met in Ujiji, on the Tanzanian shore of Lake Tanganyika, in November 1871 Stanley greeted Livingstone with the famous words “Dr Livingstone, I presume”.
A Dr. Livingstone museum can be found just outside Tabora town.
Zanzibar was the main slave-trading port in East Africa. Dr David Livingstone campaigned to bring an end to the slave trade.
Dar-es-Salaam has one of the world’s largest natural harbours. The name Dar-es-Salaam means “haven of peace”.
In 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar united to become the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar and was renamed the ‘United Republic of Tanzania’.
Health problems in Tanzania include Malaria, sleeping sickness, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.
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