Kibo Hut

Standing well above 15,000 feet, Kibo Hut is the last camp on the Marangu route of Mount Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania, near the Kenyan border. Kibo is the extinct volcano whose Uhuru Peak is the highest in Africa. Referred to as the closest place to heaven, it breaks through the clouds at 19,340 feet.

German Hans Meyer, a geographer, reached the Kibo summit in 1889 with Austrian mountaineer Ludwig Purtscheller. Nearly every climber who has summited since has recorded his or her thoughts about the extreme accomplishment in a book stored in a wooden box at the top.

Many thousands of people attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro each year, no doubt because it is possible to reach the top without specialized mountaineering gear. Should you choose to brave this endeavor, push to the back of your mind the nagging thought that the name “Kilimanjaro” was once— although incorrectly—thought to mean “we failed to climb it.”