Know your city

Moshi, a bustling town at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro, is home of the Chagga people and the centre of one of Tanzania?s major coffee-growing regions. Most visitors use the town as a starting point for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro which dominates views from the town. The name Moshi means ?smoke? in Swahili, a reference to the clouds which sit around the peak on most days. The lush foothills of Kilimanjaro support much agriculture and their cooler temperatures and beautiful scenery attract many visitors.

Moshi is at 800m altitude and isn?t uncomfortably humid like the coastal areas. It has two rainy periods, the short rains in November and December and the heavier long rains in April and May. The temperature ranges between 16 and 33 degrees Celsius with an average around 28 degrees. It is particularly hot between January and March.

History of the city

Tanzania know your City Mount Kilimanjaro has always been a populated area as its volcanic soils are full of nutrients and it support intensive agriculture. That, in combination with year-round water from the mountain-top glacier, have meant it has been populated with farmers for a long time. German colonialists were attracted to the area and set up vast coffee plantations as well as building a railway stretching from Tanga at the coast, through Moshi and up to Arusha. Unfortunately it is no longer in use.