Where Is Mount Kilimanjaro? Location, Height and Getting There

We get asked this a lot, usually by people who have seen that famous picture of elephants walking under a snowy summit and assumed the mountain is in Kenya. It isn't. Every route to the top starts and finishes on the Tanzanian side, and most climbers spend the night before in Moshi, the town at its southern foot. Our own Machame, Marangu and Umbwe climbs start and end at a hotel there.

Below: where the mountain sits on the map, how high it is, which airport to fly into and which gate each route uses.

Where exactly is Kilimanjaro?

Kilimanjaro rises out of the plains in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania, roughly 340 km south of the Equator. The town of Moshi sits on its southern slopes, Arusha is about an hour and a half west of Moshi by road, and the Kenyan border curves around its northern side.

Fact	Detail
Country	Tanzania (Kilimanjaro Region)
Protected area	Kilimanjaro National Park, run by Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA)
UNESCO status	World Heritage Site since 1987
Summit	Uhuru Peak, 5,895 m, on the Kibo cone
Nearest town	Moshi, at the southern foot of the mountain
Nearest airport	Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), between Moshi and Arusha
Neighbour	Kenya, just north; Amboseli National Park looks straight at the mountain

How high is Kilimanjaro, and what are its three peaks?

Uhuru Peak is 5,895 m above sea level, which makes Kilimanjaro the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain in the world. It is a volcano made of three cones:

• Kibo, the youngest and tallest, holds the summit crater, the glaciers and Uhuru Peak. Every trekking route ends here.
• Mawenzi, to the east, is a jagged 5,149 m peak that you see across the saddle on the Marangu and Rongai routes. Trekkers don't climb it.
• Shira, to the west, is the oldest. It collapsed long ago into the wide Shira Plateau, which the Lemosho and Machame routes cross on their way up.

Shira and Mawenzi are extinct. Kibo is dormant, and gas vents still steam in its inner crater.

Getting to Kilimanjaro

Fly into Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO). It sits between Moshi and Arusha and has direct flights from Amsterdam, Doha, Addis Ababa and Nairobi, among others. From the airport, Moshi is under an hour by road.

Climbers normally sleep in Moshi the night before the climb and the night after it. From there the drive to Marangu Gate takes about 50 minutes and Machame Gate around an hour. The western gate at Londorossi, used by Lemosho and the Northern Circuit, is a longer drive round the side of the mountain, and the Rongai trail starts in the north, close to the Kenyan border.

Our climb prices include the airport transfers and a hotel night in Moshi before and after, so the logistics are handled from the moment you land.

Which gate does each route start from?

Route	Side of the mountain	Our climb
Marangu	South-east, Marangu Gate	7 days, from US$1,710
Umbwe	South, Umbwe Gate	7 days, from US$1,845
Machame	South-west, Machame Gate	from US$1,970
Rongai	North, near the Kenyan border	7 days, from US$1,990
Lemosho	West, Londorossi Gate	from US$2,250
Northern Circuit	West, then around the north	10 days, from US$2,495

Prices are per climber and were checked on 27 October 2026. Not sure which side suits you? The route finder on our Kilimanjaro climbing page asks three questions and points you to one.