High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Mount Kenya (5,199 metres (17,057 ft)) is the second highest mountain in Africa and the highest mountain in Kenya, after which the country is named. It lies just south of the equator and currently has eleven small glaciers. In 1849 Johann Krapf was the first European to discover Mount Kenya. Various expeditions reached it in the following years. It was first climbed in 1899 by Halford Mackinder. The mountain became a national park in 1949, played a key role in the Mau Mau events in the 1950s, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. It is climbed and walked up by up to 15,000 tourists every year.