African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1269 Sense of Distance

Maria and her two siblings had no interest in the unfamiliar "Mount Kilimanjaro". After all, the territory of Tsarist Russia exceeded 20 million square kilometers, and there were many various terrain wonders in the territory.

However, it is quite novel that East Africa dares to assert that Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in East Africa.

Princess Maria asked: "Has the East African government measured the mountains in the country? As far as I know, there should be many tall mountains in East Africa, and it should be difficult to measure the height of these mountains!"

Maxim said: "Anyway, as far as I can remember, Kilimanjaro has been the highest peak in East Africa. This is also what the geography textbook says. In recent years, no mountain higher than Kilimanjaro has been discovered, and there is no data on mountains higher than Kilimanjaro in other regions outside East Africa."

Geographical surveying is a long, large and complex process. For example, measuring the land area, sea area, number of lakes, height of mountains, etc., none of them is simple.

And it is very likely that as time goes by, the data of predecessors may be overturned by later generations. For example, the Soviet Union overturned the data of its highest peak more than once.

Prince Maxim also said: "No one usually pays attention to the source of these data. At least when I was in school, the geography textbooks described them like this. Not only Mount Kilimanjaro, but also the empire's largest lake, the Great Lake (Lake Victoria), and the deepest lake, Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika). No one knows who summarized these data."

"However, after so many years, the results of our East African National Geographic Survey have not overturned these data."

This is obviously Ernst's fault. After all, the first generation of textbooks in East Africa can be traced back to the founding period of the Hechingen Military Academy. Ernst participated in the compilation at that time and accidentally added a lot of 21st century geographical knowledge into it.

Crown Prince Alexei said at this time: "These are all minor issues. Even if Kilimanjaro is not the tallest mountain in East Africa, so what! When we really find a mountain taller than it, we can talk about other things. After all, the geocentric theory can be replaced by the heliocentric theory, and these mountains are standing there. One day, we will find the answer."

So after hearing the Russian prince's theory, several people stopped paying attention to this issue.

Looking at the vast primitive jungle in the east, Crown Prince Alexei asked: "By the way, Your Highness Maxim, are there lions and elephants in the forests of East Africa? These are the most representative animals in East Africa, and we have not seen them yet!"

"This place is so close to the forest, your Rhine Empire should have its own royal hunting grounds!"

Basically, all the great nobles in Europe have their own hunting traditions, and the Hohenzollern family is no exception.

Although Alexei is thin, this makes him more eager for wildness and conquest. After all, the more a person lacks something, the more he wants to get it. Alexei, a victim of hemophilia, wants to have a strong body, which is no exception.

Of course, there is also the young man's curiosity about unfamiliar things. Famous African wild animals such as lions, elephants, crocodiles, etc. naturally arouse the prince's curiosity.

Prince Maxim said: "Of course there is a royal hunting ground, but it is not in this area. This rainforest is an undeveloped area, so there must be a lot of wild animals in it."

"However, lions and elephants probably don't have anything like what you think of. After all, generally speaking, lions and elephants live in grasslands."

"It's not that there are no species endemic to forest areas, but they are not common. For example, African forest elephants are generally distributed in the Congo rainforest area, which is still some distance away from here."

"There probably aren't many wild animals left in the rainforests around Rhine City, especially in the outer areas. The long-term development of this area in East Africa has led to a sharp decline in the number of wild animals in the country."

"If you really want to see animals, I can take you to the city zoo later. There you can see all kinds of animals unique to Africa, including lions, hippos, crocodiles, rhinos, zebras, hyenas, and elephants."

Hearing what Maxim said, Alexei immediately gave up. He said, "I don't want to see those kinds of animals in captivity. That's too boring. After all, we have seen them in Europe before. There are even wild men found in Africa and other places in European zoos."

"What I want to see are the wild animals roaming freely in the grasslands or forests, especially the huge herds of animals that are rumored to be walking in groups on the grasslands in Africa. That's really spectacular!" Listening to the kid's words, Maxim said speechlessly, "Then you will be disappointed. East Africa is not an uncivilized place like other parts of Africa. The scene you described is relatively common in West Africa. As for us in East Africa, we can only see it in specific protected areas."

"The most famous of these is the Serengeti, which has been our country's protected area, or the country's most famous wildlife reserve, since the history of East Africa."

"We've left it pretty much undeveloped, so you can see the huge fauna you're talking about, and even the huge landscape of thousands of wild animals migrating according to the seasons."

Hearing this, Alexei said excitedly: "Then where can we go to have a look?"

Maxim said, "You'll have to wait for a while. The Serengeti is thousands of kilometers away from Rhine City. If you want to go there, you must be fully prepared."

"The Serengeti is also quite dangerous because of the low level of development there. The wildlife there is quite wild, there are more of them, and they are quite aggressive."

"If you want to travel to the Serengeti, you must prepare special vehicles, guns, and a lot of supplies."

Alexei said: "More than a thousand kilometers is not too far. After all, it is only about 600 to 700 kilometers from St. Petersburg to Moscow. It is only more than a thousand kilometers from Dar es Salaam to Rhine."

People from different countries have different perceptions of distance. For example, for the Dutch, if they walk a random distance, they may go abroad.

Both Russia and East Africa are world powers, with Russia having nearly 10 million square kilometers more territory than East Africa. Of course, this is data from before World War I.

Therefore, one thousand kilometers is not far for Alexei and others. After all, living in such a big country, walking between any two cities may start from hundreds of kilometers.

For example, Alexei's family, that is, the Tsar's family, although they live in St. Petersburg, they also go to Moscow, the second largest city in Russia, occasionally.

Moscow is the secondary capital of Russia, and the Kremlin is the residence of the Tsar, although the Tsar and his family rarely go there.

The Rhine royal family also has a deep understanding of the sense of distance. After all, East Africa is the second largest country in the world (in terms of area), and the movement paths of East Africans are generally not small.

Take the Ernst family for example. It is impossible for them to stay in Rhine City all the time. Occasionally, when they have free time, they might go to their hometown in the First Town, or go on vacation to the Great Lakes region, or inspect various parts of the country.

In fact, since the capital was moved to Rhine City, the last point has become more convenient. After all, Rhine City is relatively close to the center of East Africa.

Therefore, with Rhine City as the starting point, it is relatively convenient to go to various places in the country. Of course, going abroad is another matter. Because it is located deep in the inland, Rhine City has become one of the least suitable places for going abroad.

At present, under the premise that aircraft performance cannot be guaranteed, the main means of transportation are rail, road and sea transportation, and East Africa’s external exchanges also basically rely on sea transportation.

Choosing the latter means having to transfer. That is to say, nowadays, land transportation is more developed, and it is possible to get from the coast to the inland within one day at the fastest. If it were in ancient times, placing the capital in Rhine City would basically mean that East Africa had given up the ocean.

After all, according to the speed of communication in ancient times, the enemy might have already captured the coastal areas. By the time Rhine City received the news that the enemy had arrived in East Africa, it was too late.

(End of this chapter)