At 5,199 m, Mount Kenya is the sec­ond high­est peak in Africa. It is an ancient extinct vol­cano, which dur­ing its peri­od of activ­i­ty (3.1–2.6 mil­lion years ago) is thought to have risen to 6,500 m. There are 12 rem­nant glac­i­ers on the moun­tain, all reced­ing rapid­ly, and four sec­ondary peaks that sit at the head of the U‑shaped glacial val­leys. With its rugged glac­i­er-clad sum­mits and forest­ed mid­dle slopes, Mount Kenya is one of the most impres­sive land­scapes in East Africa. The evo­lu­tion and ecol­o­gy of its afro-alpine flo­ra pro­vide an out­stand­ing exam­ple of eco­log­i­cal and bio­log­i­cal process­es. Through the Lewa Wildlife Con­ser­van­cy and Ngare Ndare For­est Reserve, the prop­er­ty also incor­po­rates low­er lying scenic foothills and arid habi­tats of high bio­di­ver­si­ty, sit­u­at­ed in the eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion zone between the moun­tain ecosys­tem and the semi-arid savan­na grass­lands. The area also lies with­in the tra­di­tion­al migrat­ing route of the African ele­phant pop­u­la­tion.