Tsavo is a region of
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
located at the crossing of the
Uganda RailwayThe Uganda Railway is a historical railway system linking the interiors of Uganda and Kenya to the Indian Ocean at Mombasa in Kenya.- Origins :...
over the
Tsavo RiverThe Tsavo River runs east from the western end of the Tsavo National Park of Kenya, near the border of Tanzania, until it joins with the Athi River, forming the Galana River near the center of the park. This river is the main contributor to the watershed of the lower portion of the park region, and...
, close to where it meets the
Athi RiverAthi-Galana-Sabaki River is the second longest river in Kenya . It has a total length of 390 km, and drains a basin area of 70,000 km². The river rises in 1° 42' S...
. It is a KiKamba word meaning "place of slaughter", a reference to the murderous attacks of
MaasaiThe Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well known of African ethnic groups...
morani on Kamba people there. Until the British put an end to the slave trade in the 19th century, Tsavo was continually crossed by caravans of Arab slavers and their captives. Many of the victims dropped dead by the way and were eaten by
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s.
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Tsavo is a region of
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
located at the crossing of the
Uganda RailwayThe Uganda Railway is a historical railway system linking the interiors of Uganda and Kenya to the Indian Ocean at Mombasa in Kenya.- Origins :...
over the
Tsavo RiverThe Tsavo River runs east from the western end of the Tsavo National Park of Kenya, near the border of Tanzania, until it joins with the Athi River, forming the Galana River near the center of the park. This river is the main contributor to the watershed of the lower portion of the park region, and...
, close to where it meets the
Athi RiverAthi-Galana-Sabaki River is the second longest river in Kenya . It has a total length of 390 km, and drains a basin area of 70,000 km². The river rises in 1° 42' S...
. It is a KiKamba word meaning "place of slaughter", a reference to the murderous attacks of
MaasaiThe Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well known of African ethnic groups...
morani on Kamba people there. Until the British put an end to the slave trade in the 19th century, Tsavo was continually crossed by caravans of Arab slavers and their captives. Many of the victims dropped dead by the way and were eaten by
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s. In this manner, some lions of Tsavo acquired a taste for human flesh. This might have contributed to the attacks by the two infamous
Tsavo maneatersThe Tsavo maneaters were a pair of notorious man-eating lions responsible for the deaths of a number of construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, from March through December 1898.-History:...
.
Two national parks,
Tsavo East National ParkTsavo East National Park is one of the oldest and largest parks in Kenya at 11,747 square kilometers. Opened in April of 1948, it is located near the village of Voi in the Taita District of Coast Province. The park is divided into east and west sections by the A109 road and a railway...
and
Tsavo West National ParkTsavo West National Park is located in the Coast Province of Kenya. The park covers an area of 9,065 square kilometres. The A109 road Nairobi-Mombasa and a railway divides the park into east and west...
are nearby.
Nature
Typical flora of the region includes:
- Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus in 1773. The plants tend to be thorny and pod-bearing, with sap and leaves typically bearing large amounts of tannins...
- Myrrh
Myrrh is a reddish-brown resinous material, the dried sap of a number of trees, but primarily from Commiphora myrrha, which is native to Yemen, Somalia, the eastern parts of Ethiopia, and Commiphora gileadensis, which is native to Jordan...
- Baobab
Adansonia is a genus containing eight species of trees, native to Madagascar , mainland Africa and Australia . The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island....
Typical fauna of the region includes:
- Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta. Three species of elephant are living today: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant...
- Giraffe
The giraffe is an African even-toed ungulate mammal, the tallest of all land-living animal species, and the largest ruminant. It is covered in large, irregular patches of yellow to black fur separated by white, off-white, or dark yellowish brown background. The average mass for an adult male...
- Cape Buffalo
- Gazelle
A gazelle is any of many antelope species currently or formerly in the genus Gazella. Six species are included in two genera which were formerly considered subgenera...
- Klipspringer
The Klipspringer , Oreotragus oreotragus, also known colloquially as a mvundla , is a small African antelope that lives from the Cape of Good Hope all the way up East Africa and into Ethiopia.Reaching approximately 58 cm at the shoulder, Klipspringers are relatively small animals...
- Kudu
The "kudus" are two species of antelope:*Lesser Kudu, "Tragelaphus imberbis"*Greater Kudu, "Tragelaphus strepsiceros"- Etymology :The name of the animal was imported into English in the 18th century from isiXhosa iqudu, via Afrikaans koedoe....
- Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera; the other three being the tiger, lion and jaguar...
- Lion
The Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
- Tsetse fly
Tsetse , sometimes spelled tzetze and also known as tik-tik flies, are large biting flies inhabiting much of mid-continental Africa between the Sahara and the Kalahari deserts. They live by feeding on the blood of vertebrate animals and are the primary biological vectors of trypanosomes, which...
Native human inhabitants:
- The Waata, a bow-hunting people.
In popular culture
The place achieved fame in
The Man-eaters of TsavoThe Man-eaters of Tsavo is a book written by John Henry Patterson in 1907 about a pair of lions that he killed in Kenya, known as the Tsavo maneaters....
, a book about the "
Tsavo maneatersThe Tsavo maneaters were a pair of notorious man-eating lions responsible for the deaths of a number of construction workers on the Kenya-Uganda Railway, from March through December 1898.-History:...
", a pair of lions who attacked workers building the railroad bridge, an episode also depicted in the 1996 film
The Ghost and the DarknessThe Ghost and the Darkness is a 1996 thriller about the Tsavo maneaters, two lions who attacked the builders of the Uganda-Mombasa Railway in 1898, killing about 135 of them, and the subsequent hunt to kill them...
.
In the video game
Halo 3Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo series and concludes the story arc that began in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...
for the
Xbox 360The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles....
, one of the levels is entitled Tsavo Highway and encompasses the final stages of the evacuation of Crow's Nest and the preface for the attack on
VoiVoi is a market town in southern Kenya, lying on the edge of the Tsavo National Park. It lies at the junction of the railway lines from Nairobi to Mombasa and Taveta. Also the Voi Sisal Estates are located near the town...
.
External links