Which glacier lies near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania?

The glacier near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is Furtwängler Glacier.

This small ice body sits on Kibo, Kilimanjaro’s highest volcanic cone, close to the mountain’s summit. It is a remnant of the much larger ice cap that once covered the summit area of Africa’s highest mountain.

The glacier is named after Walter Furtwängler, who reached Kilimanjaro’s summit with Siegfried König in 1912. The name can cause confusion because Kilimanjaro has several other named glaciers and ice fields, including Tyndall, Lewis, and Rebmann.

Furtwängler Glacier has shrunk dramatically. Its area fell from roughly 113,000 square metres in 1976 to about 11,000 square metres in 2018. A hole through the ice was documented in 2006, and the glacier’s retreat reflects the broader loss of Kilimanjaro’s summit ice.