The Aberdare Range lies between Mount Kenya and the Great Rift Valley; it was named after Lord Aberdare, president of the Royal Geographical Society by the explorer Joseph Thomson in 1883. The local Kikuyu people who cultivated in the range’s watered slope called it “Nyandarua”, which means ‘drying hide’ as the mountain’s shape looked like an animal skin pegged out to dry with sticks under the spinal ridge to keep it above the ground.
