Tanzania

Tanzania lies prominently on the western shores of the Indian Ocean, between Kenya to the north and Mozambique to the south. The country also shares borders with six other countries: Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi to the northwest, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the former Zaire) to the west, and Zambia and Malawi to the southwest. It is a large country, with a total area of about 945,000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria. The country has comparatively many attractive and contrasting physical features. In the northeast, there is Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain which rises to 5,895 meters from the Indian Ocean, in a distance of less than 500 kilometers. On the borders of the country are three large lakes— Victoria to the northwest, Tanganyika to the west, and Nyasa (Malawi) to the southwest. The Great Rift Valley traverses the central highland plateaus of the country, and its short branch marks the western borders of the country. The country has beautiful but largely unexploited tourist attractions, from tropical beaches in the Indian Ocean, including on the spices-rich islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, to such famous game sanctuaries as the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Crater.