Nairobi

About Nairobi

Where else can you photograph lions with skyscrapers in the background? Nairobi grew from a railway depot founded in 1899 on the Uganda Railway into the capital of Kenya and East Africa's biggest business hub, a city of more than four million people on a highland plateau around 1,700 meters above sea level, which keeps its days pleasantly mild.

Wildlife is right on the doorstep. Nairobi National Park begins just south of the city, the Sheldrick orphanage cares for baby elephants, and at the Giraffe Centre you can feed endangered Rothschild's giraffes from a raised platform. The leafy suburb of Karen keeps the farmhouse of Out of Africa author Karen Blixen, and the National Museum, Bomas of Kenya and the Railway Museum tell the stories of the country's peoples and of the city itself.

Karura Forest offers shaded trails and a waterfall within the city limits, while the Maasai Market and workshops such as Kazuri Beads are the places to buy crafts. Nairobi is also the starting point for many safaris to the Maasai Mara, Amboseli and the Rift Valley lakes.