The region described in the passage…

Glaciers at the equator. The legendary source of the River Nile. Mysterious snow-capped peaks shrouded in an impenetrable cloud. These may sound like the stuff of myths – but in this case these descriptions aptly depict Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains, known for more than 2,000 years as the Mountains of the Moon. Located at Uganda’s western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Rwenzori Mountains rise as much as 5,109 m (16,763 ft) above gorges at equatorial sea-level to create an amazingly diverse environment that includes tropical rain forests, marshes and lakes, grasslands, glaciers and snowfields. The flora and fauna that flourish there are as unique as the region itself. On gentler slopes, rare mountain gorillas may inhabit bamboo forests, while giant tree heathers up to 10 m (33 ft) tall sway on open ridge tops. It’s no wonder much of the region is now designated World Heritage Site – yet only the lucky visitors will actually see the 100 km (62 mi) of mountain peaks, as a cloak of thick fog envelopes the Rwenzori year-round. It was this fog cloud that kept the legendary peaks from being documented until the late 1800s by non-African explorers – and the summit wasn’t reached until year later.