Charles New

It was 13 years before Rebman�s sighting [of Kilimanjaro in 1848] was confirmed by the German Officer Baron Karl Klaus von der Decken and the young British geologist Richard Thornton. Von de Decken climbed to about 14,000 feet and experienced a fall of snow. Thornton made many observations of the mountain and estimated accurately that it stood about 20,000 feet above sea level. Six years later the missionary Charles New managed to reach the snowline. Then in 1884 the naturalist Henry Hamilton Johnston made an intensive study of the flora and fauna.

In 1871 the Missionary, Charles New, attempted the ascent but was compelled to turn back on account of the bad weather. New, however, crossed the snow line to the South East of Kibo where it is particularly low. Two years later he made a second attempt, but was plundered by Rindi, the Chief of Moshi, and barely escaped with his life, only to die on the journey back to the coast.

The next recorded attempt on Kilimanjaro was by a missionary, Charles New, who after a first attempt on 14th August 1871, started again on 26th August 1871 and reached the snow line on 28th accompanied by one servant and a Chagga guide. His first account was published in the proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society in 1872 and more fully in his book Life, Wanderings and Labours in Eastern Africa (1873)

It is this �inclusivity� that undoubtedly goes some way to explaining Kilimanjaro�s popularity, a popularity that saw 20,351 foreign tourists and 674 local trekkers visit in 2000, thereby confirming Kili�s status as the most popular of the so-called �Big Seven�, the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. The sheer size of it must be another factor behind its appeal. This is the Roof of Africa, a massive massif 60km long by 80km wide with an altitude that reaches to a fraction under 6km above sea level. The renowned anthropologist, Charles Dundas, writing in 1924 claimed that he once saw Kilimanjaro from a point over 120 miles away. It is even big enough to have its own weather systems (note the plural) and, furthermore, to influence the climates of the countries that surround it.

"The aspect presented by this prodigious mountain is one of unparalleled grandeur, sublimity, majesty, and glory. It is doubtful if there be another such sight in this wide world. "

Charles New, the first European to reach the snow-line on Kilimanjaro, from his book Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa

But size, as they say, isn�t everything, and by themselves these bald figures fail to fully explain the allure of Kilimanjaro. So instead we must look to attributes that cannot be measured by theodolites or yardsticks if we are to understand the appeal of Kilimanjaro.