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Tanzania will tantalises your senses with its smells, sights, sounds, tastes and textures. Exotic aromas, whether of sweet cinnamon, pungent peppercorns or smoky campfires will stay with you long after your visit. The sights are breathtaking, changing from the snow capped peak of Kilimanjaro to the coral reefs of Mafia to the vast crater of the Ngorongoro.

The sounds thrill the mind, beginning from the early morning call of the muezzin in Zanzibar to the thunder of hooves as the wildebeest stampede their way across the plains of the Serengeti and the clamor of voices rises in the marketplace to the rhythmic drumbeats of the Swahili musicians. The smooth gloss of carved ebony and the texture of native fabrics lure visitors by their very touch as food being prepared on open fires sets the taste buds tingling.

Tanzania is the ultimate in African destinations – it has Africa’s tallest mountain, its biggest game reserve, its most famous national park and the oldest fossils ever found on the Dark Continent. Visitors to Tanzania are spoilt for choice, as the travel options are endless, coral islands, grasslands and rainforests, mountains and volcanoes, animal safaris and deep-sea fishing, scuba diving and snorkeling, trekking or big game hunting. Tanzania is the perfect place for an African "Safari" – the Kiswahili word for a journey.

Coral islands, grasslands and rainforests, mountains and volcanoes make Tanzania the perfect destination. Travel to Tanzania and let the smiling faces of its people welcome you, let their warmth and hospitality make it an exotic, wildly romantic and adventurous dream trip.

Historically Speaking

The earliest known human habitation of the region now part of Tanzania is traced back two million years and proven by the fossils found by the Leakeys in the Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plain. In later years, the coastal region and the islands developed into a trade centres starting the migration of merchant communities from as far east as India and China. The European merchant sailors found their way here by the early 1400s and set up shop after sacking and subjugating the ruling dynasty; the Portuguese were expelled from the area in 1698 by an Afro-Arab combined army. The Omani dynasty of the Bu Said replaced the region's Yarubi leaders in 1741. It was during this period that Zanzibar gained its legendary status as a center for the ivory and slave trade, becoming in 1841 the capital city of the Sultan of Oman.

The hinterland areas saw the large-scale migration of tribes like the Masai from neighbouring Kenya. By the 19th century, Britain and Germany had sent in explorers and traders and like most of Africa, Tanzania became a pawn in the game between the European colonial powers. The Germans dominated the region from 1886 till the end of the World War I when Tanzania was handed over to the British by the League of Nations. Present day Tanzania is the result of a merger between the mainland Tanganyika and the island of Zanzibar in 1964, after both territories gained independence. The principal nationalist party, the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), emerged as the dominant political force and its charismatic leader, Julius Nyerere held the post of President from 1964 to 1985. Modern Tanzania is a substantial power in African politics and plays an active role in regional politics even supporting anti-colonial guerrilla movements in southern Africa and offering military protection to many regimes.

Habitat

The Federal United Republic of Tanzania includes the mainland province of Tanganyika and the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba that together combine to make up Tanzania. The mainland country lies off the Indian Ocean, on the east coast of Africa. It shares borders with Kenya and Uganda in the north, with Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo on the western side and with Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique in the south. The islands of Zanzibar and Pemba lie in the Indian Ocean, 48km from the mainland. The country’s most important port is Dar es Salaam within easy reach of Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain at 5895m.

The Tanzanian mainland is divided into many distinct territorial entities: starting from Rift valleys and volcanoes to large mangrove swamps, low hill ranges uplands, high mountains, plateaus, and a variety of terrain, coral reefs and lakes. The mountainous regions include Mt. Meru (4,566 m) and Mt. Kilimanjaro in the northeast; the Usambara, Nguru, and Uluguru Mountains in the east; the Livingstone Mts. and the Kipengere Range near Lake Nyasa in the south; and the Ufipi Highlands in the southwest. Tanzania's few rivers include the Pangani, the Rufiji, and the Ruvuma all of which flow into the Indian Ocean, and the Malagarasi River, which flows into Lake Tanganyika.

Over 53,000 sq km of the land mass is inland water, mostly lakes like Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika formed in the Rift Valley. Lake Tanganyika, the longest and (after Lake Baikal) deepest freshwater lake in the world forms Tanzania’s border with Zaire. The coastal plains extend up to 64km inland with lush, tropical vegetation while the Masai Steppe in the north rise up to altitudes of 698-3500ft ASL and a steep plateau extend south towards Zambia and Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi).

Flora and Fauna

Due to such a varied topography the habitation varies from place to place - the tropical vegetation of the coastal plains changes to grassy savannah as the country moves to high ground before transforming into arid and semi-arid bush land. The Serengeti plains are home to many species of African wild life. The Serengeti National Park houses 35 species of animals including elephants, zebra, giraffes, eland, wildebeest, lions and leopards. The Serengeti plains also contain the marvelous Ngorongoro, a 20-mile-wide volcanic crater that is home to an unusual concentration of migratory game animals like zebra.