Sights and delights of Tanzania's ‘Rock City’

Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania after Dar es Salaam, which is located in the southern shore of Lake Victoria, is surrounded by lush green hills adorned by granite rocks and gigantic boulders.

The most distinct is the Bismarck Rock, also known as the balancing rock. It sits above water and on a set of larger rocks in a collective formation that rises more than 10 metres.

Sylvester Mapunda, a guide, said the rock was named after the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who visited the area in 1890, when the country was under German colonialists.

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It is on this rock where the statue of the former chancellor was erected.

The statue was later pulled down into the water when the British took over the colony from the German administration after end of World War One in 1918. But the name stuck.

Mwanza serves as a commercial hub for up to seven regions being at the centre geographically, connecting four East African Community (EAC) states, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The Capri Point is the small peninsula on the left of Bismarck Rock.

Walking through the city’s streets, one cannot miss the Tilapia statue at the roundabout between Station Road and Kenyatta Avenue.

The presence of this 12-foot statue symbolises the main economic activity of the majority Mwanza residents and its suburbs — fishing.

The Saanane National Park, which is located west of the city in a small island named after Mzee Saanane Chawandi — who was then the owner of the island — is also a tourist attraction.

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It was the first zoo in Tanzania in 1964, with different species of wild animals ferried there. These included buffalo, bushbuck, dik dik, elephant, impala, black rhino, warthog, wildebeest, zebra, monkeys, giraffe, porcupine and crocodiles.

Dangerous animals like rhinos and buffaloes were caged while others were free range. The Island was given the game reserve status in 1991.

Then in 2013 it became a national park.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan even visited the park in July 2022 while recording a tourism promotion video for the country.