Ruwenzori Range is a group of mountains that lies just north of the equator in east-central Africa. It extends between Lake Albert and Lake Edward on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mountain range is about 75 miles (120 kilometers) long and 40 miles (65 kilometers) wide. It has six snow-capped peaks. The highest elevation is Margherita Peak, at 16,762 feet (5,109 meters) above sea level. The range is not volcanic, but consists of ancient crystalline rock that moved upward from the earth’s crust.
Ancient peoples called the range the Mountains of the Moon. Ptolemy, the Alexandrian geographer, first used this name on a map. Melting snows from the range feed some of the farthest Nile headwaters.
In 1889, the British explorer Henry M. Stanley became the first white man to see the range. He used the local name Ruwenzori (rainmaker).
