Mountains
From north to south the mountains include the Lendu Plateau, Rwenzori Mountains, Virunga Mountains and Itombwe Mountains. The Ruwenzori mountains have been identified with Ptolemy's "Mountains of the Moon". The range covers an area 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and 65 kilometres (40 mi) wide. This range includes Mount Stanley at 5,119 metres (16,795 ft), Mount Speke at 4,890 metres (16,040 ft) and Mount Baker at 4,843 metres (15,889 ft). The Virunga Massif along the border between Rwanda and the DRC consists of eight volcanoes. Two of these, Nyamuragira and Nyiragongo, are still highly active.
Isolated mountain blocks further to the south include Mount Bururi in southern Burundi, the Kungwe-Mahale Mountains in western Tanzania, and Mount Kabobo and the Marungu Mountains in the DRC on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Most of the massifs rise to between 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and 3,500 metres (11,500 ft).
Read more about this topic: Albertine Rift
Famous quotes containing the word mountains:
“Wachusett hides its lingering voice
Within its rocky heart,
And Allegheny graves its tone
Throughout his lofty chart.
Monadnock, on his forehead hoar,
Doth seal the sacred trust,
Your mountains build their monument,
Though ye destroy their dust.”
—Lydia Huntley Sigourney (1791–1865)
“The Mississippi, the Ganges, and the Nile,... the Rocky Mountains, the Himmaleh, and Mountains of the Moon, have a kind of personal importance in the annals of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“We envy not the warmer clime, that lies
In ten degrees of more indulgent skies,
Nor at the coarseness of our heaven repine,
Though o’er our heads the frozen Pleiads shine:
‘Tis Liberty that crowns Britannia’s Isle,
And makes her barren rocks and her bleak mountains smile.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)