![]() ![]() Just outside the city is Nairobi National Park, 113 sq kms of plains, cliffs and forest. This is a modern capital separated from the great wilderness that surrounds it. The city has not lost its sense of the past, with an excellent museum and the historical home of Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa open to visitors. This is a place of great contrasts where race, tribe and origin all become facets of a unique Nairobi character. The entire town has a boundless energy, and is thriving place where all of human life can be found. It was soon an important centre for the colony and a mecca for adventurers, hunters and travellers from all over the world. The camp became a rustic village, and then a shanty town, which by 1907 was the capital of all of British East Africa. The local Maasai called this highland swamp Ewaso Nai’beri – the place of cold water. ![]() When railway construction workers reached this area in 1899, they set up a basic camp and supply depot, simply called ‘Mile 327’. Kenya’s capital city has risen in a single century from a brackish uninhabited swampland to a thriving modern capital. Nairobi is a city that never seems to sleep. A frontier town no more, Nairobi has become one of Africa’s largest, and most interesting cities. Modern Nairobi is still the safari capital of Africa, but the modern world has quickly caught up with the city. Major tribes include the Kikuyu, the Luhyia and the Luo, but the most famous are the tall, proud, beautiful red-clad Masai, who still lead a traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle of cattle-herding along the southern border.Ī mixture of African and Arabic, the unique Swahili culture can be found along the balmy coast, where for centuries it became prosperous on the profits of commerce from the trade winds that carried ocean-going dhows (sailing boats) across the Indian Ocean to Arabia and Persia. Kenya has a fascinatingly diverse population with around 40 different tribes, all with their own languages and cultures. Over 50 Parks and Reserves cover all habitats from desert to mountain forest, including six marine parks in the Indian Ocean. Just about every African plains animal is present. Kenya is a place for safaris, and one-tenth of all land in Kenya is designated as National Parks and Game Reserves. It is a startlingly beautiful land, from the coral reefs and white sand beaches of the coast to the summit of Mount Kenya, crowned with clouds and be jeweled by strange giant alpine plants.īetween these two extremes is the acacia-studded rolling savannah, which is home to game parks such as Amboseli, the Masai Mara, Samburu and Tsavo the lush, agricultural highlands with their sleek green coat of coffee and tea plantations and the most spectacular stretch of the Great Rift Valley, the giant scar across the face of Africa. ![]() Kenya is regarded by many as the ‘Jewel of East Africa', and has some of the continent's finest beaches, most magnificent wildlife and scenery, and an incredibly sophisticated tourism infrastructure. ![]()
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