The Mountains of the Moon
The Rwenzori Mountains (the Mountains of the Moon) are a mountain range of eastern equatorial Africa, located on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Rwenzori mountains support glaciers and are one source of the river Nile. The Rwenzori Mountains reach heights up to 5,109 metres (16,762 ft). The highest Rwenzori peaks are permanently snow-capped, and along with Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya are the only such ones in equatorial Africa. Rwenzori Mountains National Park and Virunga National Park are located in the range.
The mountains formed about three million years ago in the late Pliocene epoch and are the result of an uplifted block of crystalline rocks including gneiss, amphibolite granite, and quartzite. They are on the flanks of the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. The range is about 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 65 kilometres (40 mi) wide. The rock is metamorphic, and the mountains are believed to have been tilted and squeezed upwards by plate movement. They are in an extremely humid area, and frequently enveloped in clouds.
The Rwenzori are known for their vegetation, ranging from tropical rainforest through alpine meadows to snow. The range supports its own species and varieties of giant groundsel and giant lobelia and even has a six metre high heather covered in moss that lives on one of its peaks. Most of the range is now a World Heritage Site and is covered jointly by the Rwenzori Mountains National Park in southwestern Uganda, and the Virunga National Park in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
(Source: Images—Boris Buschardt + mixed, Wikipedia—Rwenzori Mountains)