The Rwenzori Mountains, originally spelt as Ruwenzori is an outstanding mountain range found in Africa on the Uganda borderline with Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo). The range is a non-volcanic feature but entails of sparkling rock that moved ascending from the earth’s outside. Early people named the range ‘the Mountains of the Moon’. An Alexandrian geographer, Ptolemy, first used this name on a map. The mountains were believed to be the foundation of Nile River. Undeniably, gentle snows from the range do feed water to some of the furthermost Nile River tributaries.
The range was called Rwenzori by a European explorer, Henry Morton Stanley, after a local word, Rwenzori, which means ‘rain maker’. Certainly, the range is a rain maker. Throughout the year, there falls rain on these mountain ranges, serving the solid greenery. Sir Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh journalist and explorer has Mount Stanley named after him.
At the base is the African Savanna swarming with animals like zebras and elephants. This zone is mostly between about 3,000 and 5,500 feet (914 – 1,676 m.). Directly above the heaths is the tropical forest at between 5,500 – 7,500 feet (1,676 – 2,286 m). Here are immense ferns, vines and banana trees. Above the jungle is the great bamboo woodland, getting up to about 9,500 feet (2,895 m.)
Overhead the bamboo is the heath area which extends up to about 12,000 feet or so, and is a parcel of soaking lichen-sheltered heather vegetation pending over an earth cover of liverwort and mosses. Trees, even though are 40 feet high or more, are in lineages of the short trees in the moorlands of the Scottish.
Far higher is the alpine zone that is above 12,000 feet (3,657 m.) and is dominated by giants in its lower sectors. There are plants distinctive to the Afro-Alpine region only, comprising of the tree groundsel and huge lobelia. The upper zone, prolonging up to about 14,500 feet (4,419 m.), entail typically of rocky landscape roofed with brown mosses and black lichens.
As a final point, above 14,500 feet and reaching to the highest point in the range, the Margherita Peak at 16,763 feet (5,109 m.) above Mount Stanley, Rwenzori Mountains are enfolded in storm-swept glaciers and perpetual snow.