A LITTE ABOUT ARUSHA, TANZANIA

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Located in the northern highlands of Tanzania, beneath the twin peaks of Mt. Meru and Mt. Kilimanjaro, Arusha is the safari capital of the country. Arusha rests in a fertile valley that is the bread and vegetable basket of the country, producing half of the country’s wheat, and substantial amounts of coffee, flowers, beans and pyrethrum for export, along with bananas, maize, millet and vegetables for domestic use.

Arusha is also ideally located as a takeoff point into the northern circuit of the wilderness of Tanzania with the Arusha National Park just 35 kilometers away, the Tarangire national park and Manyara biosphere and nature reserve a day’s journey away, as well as other famous landmarks like Ngorongoro-the eighth wonder of the world, the endless Serengeti plains, Olduvai gorge site where the oldest skull of man was discovered and Africa’s highest mountain the Kilimanjaro.

Built by the Germans as a centre for colonial administration in the early century, Arusha was a sleepy town with a few shops and a grassy roundabout. From its backwater status amidst the farmlands and plantations of northern Tanzania, today Arusha is one of the country’s most prosperous towns. Arusha receives around 400,000 visitors each year. It has lively shops and markets, vibrant night life, innumerable bars and restaurants that provide plenty of interest to reward a longer stay. Arusha is also the site for the United Nations Criminal Tribunal on the Rwandan genocide and the headquarters of the East African Cooperation.

FUN FACTS:

• Arusha is also the Hindi name for the rising sun.
• Arusha's clock tower is supposedly situated at the midpoint between Cairo and Cape Town, therefore representing the halfway point between the two termini of the old British Empire in Africa. The clock tower is currently adorned by the logo of the Coca-Cola Company.
• Arusha was the setting for the 1962 film Hatari! directed by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne.
• A slang name for the city among locals is "A-Town".
• Princess Margaret visited Arusha in 1956
• In the video game Halo 3, a highway sign is seen that says "Arusha", though it is crossed out. It was most likely destroyed by large dinosaurs from the gamma sector planet of Niptuvia.
• Arusha is the only home for expensive jewelry called Tanzanite[1] which currently has been produced in high capacity by big companies.