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Why visit Tanzania? The reasons
for visiting Tanzania are innumerable, but the main list includes the
following:
Over
one quarter of its land mass is dedicated to National Parks, Game
Reserves and Game Controlled Areas, which gives Tanzania more land
dedicated to National Parks than any other country in the world and
ensures The finest game viewing potential anywhere.
From
the largest Game Reserve in Africa (The Selous, 19,293 square miles),
declared a World Heritage Site in 1982, to one of the smallest (Gombe
Stream, with its chimpanzee population) and from one of the best known
(the Serengeti) to the least (Mahale Mountains).
~
The highest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro, 19,340 feet (and the eighth
highest, Meru (14,979 feet)
~ The Serengeti ecosystem (just the Park itself covers 5,700 square
miles, which gives some scale to the Selous!) and it’s attendant
migration.
~
The collapsed caldera, wildlife miracle and World Heritage Site of the
Ngorongoro Crater, often said to be the Eighth Wonder of the World!
~ Olduvai Gorge - the “birthplace of Man”.
~
Tarangire National Park and Lake Manyara Park along the Great Rift
Valley
~ Lake Tanganyika, The second deepest lake in the world ( 4,725
feet)
~
Lake Victoria, The largest lake in Africa.
~ The Great Rufiji River.
~
Very varied habitats and vegetation zones.
~ A wonderful 497 mile coastline on the Indian Ocean, and three Main
tropical islands: Zanzibar, Pemba and Mafia.
Zanzibar is a draw in itself.
~
Excellent climate.
~ Politically stable
~
Exceptionally friendly people.
English
(and Kiswahili) as the main languages.
Relatively low levels of tourism.
Location,
Geography
Tanzania is bordered on the south by Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia;
on the west by Zaire, Burundi, and Rwanda; on the north by Uganda and
Kenya; and on the east by the Indian Ocean. Tanzania is the largest of
the East African nations, and it possesses geography as mythic as it is
spectacular.
In the
northeast of Tanzania is a mountainous region that includes Mt. Meru
(14,979 ft/4,566 m) and Mount Kilimanjaro (19,340 ft./5,895 m), the
latter of which is the highest point in Africa and possibly the most
breathtaking mountain imaginable. To the west of these peaks is
Serengeti National Park, which has the greatest concentration of
migratory game animals in the world (200,000 zebra, for example).
Olduvai Gorge, the site of the famous discoveries by the Leakey's of
fossil fragments of the very earliest ancestors of Homo sapiens. The
marvellous Eden of Africa is Ngorongoro Crater, a 20-mile-wide volcanic
crater that is home to an extraordinary concentration and diversity of
wildlife. Moving west from the Serengeti, one reaches the shores of Lake
Victoria, the largest lake on the continent and one of the primary
headwater reservoirs of the Nile. Southwest of Lake Victoria, and
forming Tanzania's border with Zaire, is Lake Tanganyika, the longest
and (after Lake Baikal) deepest freshwater lake in the world. It was at
Ujiji, a village on the Tanzanian shore of Lake Tanganyika, that H.M.
Stanley presumably encountered David Livingstone in 1871. Livingstone
had fallen ill while searching for the source of the Nile, and despite
his illness he refused to leave. Instead, he persuaded Stanley to
accompany him on a journey to the north end of Lake Tanganyika. The
region that they passed through has since become famous as Gombe
National Park, the site of Jane Goodall's chimpanzee research station.
Southeast of Lake Tanganyika is a mountainous region that includes
Lake Malawi (previously Lake Nyala), the third largest lake on the
continent. East of Lake Malawi is the enormous expanse of the Selous
Game Reserve, the largest in Africa with over 21,000 sq. mi. (55,000 sq.
km.) and perhaps more than 50,000 elephants.
Moving
northeast from Selous brings one to Tanzania's low, lush coastal strip,
the location of its largest city, Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam is the
embarkation point for Zanzibar, the fabled emerald isle that lies off
the Tanzanian coast. |
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History
& People
The history of human habitation in Tanzania goes back almost two
million years, and the fossils found at Olduvai Gorge by Louis and Mary
Leakey now stand among the most important artifacts of the origins of
our species. Artifacts of later Paleolithic cultures have also been
found in Tanzania. There is evidence that communities along the
Tanzanian coast were engaging in overseas trade by the beginning of the
first millennium AD. By 900 AD those communities had attracted
immigrants from India as well as from southwest Asia, and direct trade
extended as far as China. When the Portuguese arrived at the end of the
15th century, they found a major trade center at Kilwa Kisiwani, which
they promptly subjugated and then sacked. The Portuguese were expelled
from the region in 1698, after Kilwa enlisted the help of Omani Arabs.
The Omani dynasty of the Bu Said replaced the region's Yarubi leaders in
1741, and they proceeded to further develop trade. It was during this
time that Zanzibar gained its legendary status as a center for the ivory
and slave trade, becoming in 1841 the capital city of the sultan of
Oman.
In
Tanzania's interior, at about the same time, the cattle-grazing Maasai
migrated south from Kenya into central Tanzania. Soon afterward the
great age of European exploration of the African continent began, and
with it came colonial domination. Tanzania fell under German control in
1886, but was handed over to Britain after WWI. Present day Tanzania is
the result of a merger between the mainland (previously Tanganyika) and
Zanzibar in 1964, after both had gained independence. Tanzania has like
many African nations experienced considerable strife since independence,
and its economy is weak but improving. However, political stability have
been established. |
