Tanzania
Safari Land
Mainland Tanzania is breathtakingly immense and beautiful. The largest country in East Africa, it was the first to gain independence from the European colonial powers. It's a land that cries out for superlatives, since it contains the highest mountain in the whole continent-the legendary Kilimanjaro, "roof of Africa, eternally capped with snow-and, in the heart of the Rift Valley, the earth's second-deepest lake.
Tanzania also has the highest concentration of wildlife in the world, which it protects in extensive national parks. The Ngorongoro crater alone-the world's largest unbroken caldera-is a veritable Noah's ark, harbouring every species of animal in Africa except the giraffe, whose long legs can't cope with the crater's steep slopes. Elsewhere in Tanzania, though, these gangly creatures are such a common sight that the country is sometimes known as the "land of the giraffe".
A string of ancient volcanoes marks the frontier with Kenya, to the north. Most of Tanzania's national parks are concentrated in this part of the country, though there are also huge reserves in the south, untouched as yet by tourism. For political reasons, Tanzania receives only a quarter as many visitors as Kenya. The country was long closed to foreigners, and its tourist infrastructure is still being developed.
As if turning their backs on the emptiness of the hinterland, the population of some 25 million live mainly around the country's fringes. Altogether, more than 120 ethnic tribes live scattered over the forested mountains and great plateaux. Dodoma, the new administrative capital in the centre of the country, seems somewhat lost in the immensity of the landscape, unable to compete with Dar es-Salaam. Clinging to the shores of the Indian Ocean, the latter is universally recognized as the unofficial capital. The streets of its older districts are pervaded by an exotic oriental atmosphere, where India and Arabia rub shoulders with Africa.
