Mount Kilimanjaro with its three volcanic cones, Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira, is a dormant volcanic mountain in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain (i.e., not a component of a mountain range) in the world at 5,895 metres (19,341 ft) above sea level! Of about 20,000 people who endeavor to climb Kilimanjaro each year, one third do not reach the summit, customarily due to altitude sickness (AMS). Most suffer mild symptoms, but in its most rigorous forms, high-altitude cerebral edema or high-altitude pulmonary edema, it is life-threatening. Officially there are, on average, two or three deaths annually as a result of AMS on Kilimanjaro, albeit the total number of annual fatalities (due to a variety of causes), is put at between 10 and 15.
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