Tanzania covers an area of 937,062 square km and is situated on the east coast of Africa, lying between one and eleven degrees south of the equator. The state of Tanzania was formed from the union of Tanganyika, as it was originally called, and the independent island of Zanzibar. Also included in the union is the island of Pemba which with Zanzibar, occupies an area of 2,614 square kilometers and the island of Mafia in the Indian Ocean. Its mainland has a coastline of some 804 km of beaches most of them palm-fringed. Tanzania is a land of superlatives having a share in Africa’s highest mountain Kilimanjaro (5,896m), the world’s second deepest lake, Lake Tanganyika (772.4m) and the largest unexploited game reserve (Selous). The present capital is Dar-es-Salaam on the coast and Arusha is the northern administrative center where most safaris along the northern circuit begin.