Mount Meru

Mount Meru rises in Tanzania's Arusha Region, just north of the city of Arusha and about 70 kilometers west of Mount Kilimanjaro, reaching an elevation of about 4,562 meters, the eighth-highest mountain in Africa and Tanzania's second-highest after Kilimanjaro. It is a dormant stratovolcano formed by volcanism along the Gregory Rift, the eastern branch of the East African Rift, and its distinctive horseshoe-shaped caldera resulted from a catastrophic summit collapse roughly 7,800 years ago that removed much of the mountain's original height; several smaller cones and craters within the caldera mark later volcanic episodes, the most recent activity dating to 1910. Meru forms the topographic centerpiece of Arusha National Park, whose fertile volcanic slopes support forest, savanna and nearly 400 recorded bird species. This entity documents Mount Meru specifically as a geological formation, a dormant Rift Valley stratovolcano whose ancient summit collapse left its distinctive horseshoe caldera.