Amboseli National Park

Amboseli lies at the foot of Kilimanjaro on Kenya's southern border, and its image, elephants walking across a dry plain under the snow of the mountain, is the most photographed in East Africa. The elephants are its strength: large, well-studied herds with some of the biggest tuskers left in the world, watched by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project since 1972. The swamps fed by the mountain's meltwater keep the wildlife concentrated in a small park, and the dry seasons, June to October and January to February, give the clearest views of the peak. Lion, cheetah and hyena are present; rhino are not. The Maasai communities around the park run conservancies and cultural visits.