Johann Rebmann, a Christian missionary, who is credited with bringing Kilimanjaro to the attention of Europe when his account of a snow-capped mountain near the equator was published in 1849. That he was not immediately believed is another of the oddities in the history of Kilimanjaro. After several attempts by various people to explore, map or climb to the summit, Hans Meyer finally reached Kilimanjaro's highest peak in 1889. There is no consensus about how the mountain got its current name 'Kilimanjaro' although it probably evolved during the explorations of the last century. The Wachagga people, traditional agriculturalists of the area, claim they had no name for the mountain itself, just the two peaks which they call Kipoo and Kimawenzi.
Most speculations assume the name comes from two root words kilima and njaro .
Kilima comes from the Kiswahili word for mountain, mlima. The addition of ki is puzzling because in Kiswahili this is a diminutive and so kilima means small hill. It has been suggested that the use of the diminutive is a gesture of affection towards the huge mountain. The njaro part of the name is much more confusing. It could come from a Kichagga word for caravan, referring to the possibility that caravans used the mountain as a landmark.