Mudanda Rock, Kenya – a whale of a rock

The Mudanda Rock, in Tsavo East National Reserve in Kenya, is an ancient rock. The rocky base is composed of weathered Precambrian basement rocks, aged 570-4,550 million years old.

This massive, whale-backed looking rock is 1.5 kilometres long.

The Waliangulu and the Akamba tribes of Kenya used Mudanda Rock for drying strips of meat – mostly elephant meat. They would lay the strips on the smooth surface of the rock.

From the top of the rock, the Yatta Plateau is in view – the longest plateau in Africa, which is 1.8 to 65 million years old.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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