The Mountains of the Moon
An ancient geographer wrote that the Nile began in snowy 'Mountains of the Moon' in the heart of Africa. Europeans laughed. The mountains are real.
What was reported
Around 150 AD, the geographer Ptolemy, in Alexandria, wrote that the Nile rose from lakes fed by the snows of the 'Mountains of the Moon' in Africa. For centuries, the idea of snowy peaks on the equator seemed fantastical to Europeans.
In 1888, the explorer Henry Morton Stanley saw the Rwenzori range, on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, rising to over 5,000 metres, with glaciers. Its misty slopes are covered with strange giant plants: groundsels and lobelias many metres tall.
Explanations offered
The Rwenzori do feed the Nile's sources, and many accept them as Ptolemy's mountains, though he may have heard of other peaks. Their glaciers are shrinking fast and may disappear within decades.
- When
- Described by Ptolemy around 150 AD
- Where
- Rwenzori Mountains, Uganda
- Witnesses
- Ancient geographers, explorers and climbers
- Status
- A real place
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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