Lukenya Hills

Lukenya Hill is a prominent inselberg in the plains east of Nairobi that people have occupied for tens of thousands of years; it is 40 square kilometers in area, 40 kilometers southeast of Nairobi. Lukenya Hill is among the many great sightseeing sites in Kenya, not far away from Nairobi city. This rock climbers’ paradise gives magnificent views of Mua Hills, Kapiti Plains and Konza Hills, Ngong Hills, Ol Donyo Sabuk, and Aberdare Mountains  On clear days Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro show off their mighty peaks. The hill lurking in Nairobi’s south-eastern skyline where ancient humans lived, the flat-topped rocky outcrop emerging from the Athi-Kapiti plains. Lukenya Hill is one of the richest Later Stone Age sites in East Africa and eastern Africa is where the transition from the Middle Stone Age to the Later Stone Age happened first. This was between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago. Students of prehistory have also found sophisticated stone tools called microlithic tools made by our Stone Age relatives around the hill – a departure from the palm-sized hand axes made by our earlier ancestors. These monolithic tools were about a centimeter in length used between 35,000 and 3,000 years ago across Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. They were used as spear points and arrowheads to hunt. Lukenya Hills connects with Athi Kapiti Plains, this expansive dispersal area around the Nairobi National Park includes the 6 ranches to the south, which amount to a block some 3.5 times larger than the park. Athi Kapiti plains also create a key corridor for wildlife movements between the Nairobi National Park and the Kajiado and Amboseli plains.

Lukenya Birding

The Lukenya Hills are commonly used by Vultures for roosting and breeding, the Black Eagle or Verreaux’s  Eagle also calls the outcrop home where it is seen hunting the Rock Hyraxes.

Notable birds in Lukenya; Common Ostrich, Helmeted Guineafowl, Harlequin Quail, Yellow-throated Sandgrouse, Kori Bustard, Great Spotted Cuckoo, Dusky Nightjar, Three-banded Plover, Spur-winged Plover, Temminck’s Courser, Secretarybird, Bateleur, White-backed Vulture, Verreaux’s Eagle, Spotted Eagle Owl,

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