Kenya

Kenya is a country in East Africa. It sits right on the equator, with the Indian Ocean along its southeastern coast. Kenya shares borders with Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. About 55 million people live there. The capital and largest city is Nairobi.

The land of Kenya is amazingly varied. Along the coast, there are white-sand beaches and coral reefs. Move inland, and the land rises into dry plains full of grass and scattered trees. This kind of land is called savanna. Farther west, the Great Rift Valley cuts across the country. The Great Rift Valley is a giant crack in Earth's surface, stretching thousands of miles from the Middle East down through Africa. In the valley, you can find steaming hot springs, pink lakes full of flamingos, and towering cliffs.

Kenya is also home to Mount Kenya, the country's tallest mountain. It stands 17,057 feet high, which is over three miles straight up. Even though Mount Kenya sits almost on the equator, its peaks are covered in snow and glaciers all year.

Kenya is famous for its wildlife. Lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras, leopards, cheetahs, hippos, and rhinos all live there. To protect these animals, Kenya has set aside huge areas as national parks and reserves. One of the most famous is the Maasai Mara. Each year, millions of wildebeest and zebras travel through the Mara in a giant loop, searching for fresh grass and water. Lions and crocodiles follow them, hunting along the way.

People have lived in Kenya for a very long time. In fact, some of the oldest human fossils ever found come from the shores of Lake Turkana in northern Kenya. Some are more than three million years old, from a time long before modern humans existed. Scientists call this region the "Cradle of Humankind" because so much early human history is buried there.

More than 40 different ethnic groups live in Kenya today, each with its own language and traditions. The Maasai, known for their red cloth and long history of herding cattle, are one of the best-known groups. Most Kenyans speak two shared languages, Swahili and English, so people from different groups can talk easily with each other.

Kenya was ruled by Britain as a colony for about 70 years. It became an independent country in 1963. Today Kenya is known around the world for its wildlife, its tea and coffee farms, and its long-distance runners, who regularly win Olympic medals and major marathons.