Berliner Höhlenkundliche Berichte, Volume 1: Tanzania 1994 - 2000 Report on the Speleological Projects in the Matumbi Hills (Kilwa District), Tanga and Zanzibar

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Language: English with trilingual abstract in English, German, and French

This monograph gives a full report of the first international caving expeditions (in 1994, 1995 and 2000) that were conducted in Tanzania. The main areas investigated were the Matumbi Hills (Kilwa district) and the Tanga area. The investigations revealed 14 731 km of mapped cave passages in the Matumbi Hills including the 7510 m long Nandembo Cave System that currently takes rank fifteen of the longest caves of Africa. Overall, 20 caves were surveyed in the Matumbi Hills. 6809 km in 12 caves were mapped in the Tanga region where Mwinyigogo Cave is the second longest known cave of Tanzania (2640 m). Water samples from the Matumbi caves have been analysed and biospeleological observations were made. Furthermore some speleological investigations have been made on the island of Zanzibar, where the 300 m long Mangapwani Cave was mapped and several other waterfilled cave entrances were located.

Contents

Summary, Résumé, Zusammenfassung     3
Acknowledgements     4
Project participants 1994, 1995 and 2000     5

1     Introduction     6
2     Historical remarks on cave exploration in the Matumbi Hills and near Tanga     6
3.     Speleological investigations     7
3.1     General remarks     7
3.2     Matumbi Hills (Kilwa district)     8
3.2.1     The karst systems of the Matumbi Hills (Kilwa district)     8
3.2.2     Caves of the Matumbi Hills (Kilwa district)     12
3.3     Tanga     30
3.3.1     The karst systems of the Tanga area     30
3.3.2     Caves of the Tanga area     34
3.4     Zanzibar     46
4     Recommendations     48
4.1     Matumbi Hills     48
4.2     Tanga     49
4.3     Zanzibar     49
5     References     50

Annex 1:     Caves surveyed during the 1994, 1995 and 2000 speleological projects     
Annex 2:     Preliminary notes on caves of Zanzibar (observations by the 2000 project)     
Annex 3:     Analysis of water samples from the Matumbi Hills (by CIRS Ragusa)     
Annex 4:     Summary on the article of Thurmann (1911) by T.R. Shaw (1991)

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