Paradise Lost Caves

Last updated
Paradise Lost Caves
Location Misarara, Kiambu County, Kenya
Discovery1996

Paradise Lost Caves are a cave system located in Kiambu County, Kenya. They were discovered officially by Joseph Mbai and some of his farmhands on his property in 1996. A National Museums of Kenya expedition uncovered human remains dated back 8000-12000 years, along with obsidian artifacts from the Later Stone Age. The caves are outfitted with electric lighting for tours that pass through, but can be difficult to traverse due to caves becoming very narrow at points. [1]

Related Research Articles

Politics of Kenya Political system of Kenya

The politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Kenya is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system in accordance with a new constitution passed in 2010.

President of Kenya Head of state and head of government of Kenya

The president of the Republic of Kenya is the head of state and head of government of Kenya. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Kenya and is the commander-in-chief of the Kenya Defence Forces. The official residence of the president is State House, Nairobi.

Mount Elgon Volcano in Uganda and Kenya

Mount Elgon is an extinct shield volcano on the border of Uganda and Kenya, north of Kisumu and west of Kitale. The mountain's highest point, named "Wagagai", is located entirely within Uganda. Although there is no verifiable evidence of its earliest volcanic activity, geologists estimate that Mount Elgon is at least 24 million years old, making it the oldest extinct volcano in East Africa.

Middle Stone Age Period in African prehistory

The Middle Stone Age was a period of African prehistory between the Early Stone Age and the Later Stone Age. It is generally considered to have begun around 280,000 years ago and ended around 50–25,000 years ago. The beginnings of particular MSA stone tools have their origins as far back as 550–500,000 years ago and as such some researchers consider this to be the beginnings of the MSA. The MSA is often mistakenly understood to be synonymous with the Middle Paleolithic of Europe, especially due to their roughly contemporaneous time span, however, the Middle Paleolithic of Europe represents an entirely different hominin population, Homo neanderthalensis, than the MSA of Africa, which did not have Neanderthal populations. Additionally, current archaeological research in Africa has yielded much evidence to suggest that modern human behavior and cognition was beginning to develop much earlier in Africa during the MSA than it was in Europe during the Middle Paleolithic. The MSA is associated with both anatomically modern humans as well as archaic Homo sapiens, sometimes referred to as Homo helmei. Early physical evidence comes from the Gademotta Formation in Ethiopia, the Kapthurin Formation in Kenya and Kathu Pan in South Africa.

Mount Elgon National Park National park in Uganda and Kenya

Mount Elgon National Park is a national park 140 kilometres (87 mi) northeast of Lake Victoria. The park covers an area of 1,279 square kilometres (494 sq mi) and is bisected by the border of Kenya and Uganda. The Ugandan part of the park covers 1,110 km2 (430 sq mi) while the Kenyan part covers 169 km2 (65 sq mi). The Kenyan part of the park was gazetted in 1968, the Ugandan part in 1992.

Kikuyu, Kenya Town Council in Kiambu County, Kenya

Kikuyu is a town in Kiambu County, Kenya, which grew from a settlement of colonial missionaries. The town is located about 20 km (12 mi) northwest of central Nairobi. It is about 20 minutes from Nairobi via a number of routes, including a dual carriage road, and has a railway station on the Mombasa – Malaba Railway Line. The town is named after the Kĩkũyũ people, the major ethnicity that settled in the area. As of 2019 the total population is 323,881. Due to its geology and rich soil texture, the chief activities are livestock and crop farming. With the recent completion of the Southern Bypass that connects Mombasa to Nairobi via Kikuyu, the town is poised for greater growth as is the only town on the Bypass. Kikuyu hosts a Sub-County Administration which is the administrative division in Kiambu County.

The African long-fingered bat is a species of vesper bat in the family Vespertilionidae. It is found only in Kenya. It is found in subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. This species is often considered a synonym of Miniopterus inflatus. The holotype was collected in October 1926 by A. M. Bailey. It was described as a new species in 1936 by Colin Campbell Sanborn.

Hildegardes tomb bat Species of bat

Hildegarde's tomb bat is a species of sac-winged bat in the family Emballonuridae. It is found near the coast in Kenya and Tanzania where it feeds in tropical dry forests and roosts in caves. It is a diurnal species and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being endangered. The specific name hildegardeae was given in honour of anthropologist Hildegarde Beatrice Hinde.

Taita people Kenyan ethnic group

The Taita people are a Kenyan ethnic group located in the Taita-Taveta County. They speak Kidawida which belongs to the Bantu languages. The West-Bantu moved to the area of the Taita-Taveta County first approximately in 1000-1300.

Enkapune Ya Muto Archaeological site in Kenya

Enkapune Ya Muto, also known as Twilight Cave, is a Late Stone Age site on the Mau Escarpment of Kenya. Beads made of perforated ostrich egg shells found at the site have been dated to 40,000 years ago. The beads found at the site represent the early human use of personal ornaments.

Government of Kenya

The Government of the Republic of Kenya (GoK) is the national government of the republic of Kenya which is composed of 47 Counties, each county with its own semi-autonomous governments. The national government is composed of three arms: The Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. Each arm is independent of the other and their individual roles are set by the Constitution of Kenya. The full name of the country is the "Republic of Kenya". Its official Swahili name is 'Jamhuri ya Kenya'. Other terms such as GoK, GK and Serikali are popularly used to refer to the Kenyan government.

Chyulu Hills

The Chyulu Hills is a mountain range in Makueni County, South Eastern Kenya. It forms a 100 kilometre long volcanic field in elongated NW-SE direction. Its highest peak is 2188 metres high.

Constitution of Kenya Supreme law of the Republic of Kenya

The Constitution of Kenya is the supreme law of the Republic of Kenya. There have been three significant versions of the constitution, with the most recent redraft being enabled in 2010. The 2010 edition replaced the 1963 independence constitution. The constitution was presented to the Attorney General of Kenya on 7 April 2010, officially published on 6 May 2010, and was subjected to a referendum on 4 August 2010. The new Constitution was approved by 67% of Kenyan voters. The constitution was promulgated on 27 August 2010.

Counties of Kenya

The counties of Kenya are geographical units envisioned by the 2010 Constitution of Kenya as the units of devolved government. The powers are provided in Articles 191 and 192, and in the fourth schedule of the Constitution of Kenya and the County Governments Act of 2012. The counties are also single-member constituencies for the election of members of parliament to the Senate of Kenya and special women members of parliament to the National Assembly of Kenya. As of 2013 general elections, there are 47 counties whose size and boundaries are based on the 47 legally recognised Districts of Kenya. Following the re-organisation of Kenya's national administration, counties were integrated into a new national administration with the national government posting county commissioners to represent it at the counties.

Commission on Revenue Allocation

The Commission on Revenue Allocation is a Kenya government Commission is established under Article 215 and 216 of the Constitution of Kenya.

Office of the Controller of Budget (Kenya)

The Office of Controller of Budget of Kenya is an Independent Office established under Article 228 of The Constitution of Kenya with the core mandate being to oversee implementation of the budgets of the National and County Governments by authorising withdrawal from public funds.

Njoro River Cave

Njoro River Cave is an archaeological site on the Mau Escarpment, Kenya, that was first excavated in 1938 by Mary Leakey and her husband Louis Leakey. Excavations revealed a mass cremation site created by Elmenteitan pastoralists during the Pastoral Neolithic roughly 3350-3050 BP. Excavations also uncovered pottery, beads, stone bowls, basket work, pestles and flakes. The Leakeys' excavation was one of the earliest to uncover ancient beads and tools in the area and a later investigation in 1950 was the first to use radiocarbon dating in East Africa.

Elmenteitan

The Elmenteitan culture was a prehistoric lithic industry and pottery tradition with a distinct pattern of land use, hunting and pastoralism that appeared and developed on the western plains of Kenya, East Africa during the Pastoral Neolithic c.3300-1200 BP. It was named by archaeologist Louis Leakey after Lake Elmenteita, a soda lake located in the Great Rift Valley, about 120 km (75 mi) northwest of Nairobi.

References