Meru or Meru District Council is one of the seven districts councils of the

Arusha Region Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru (Tanzania), Mount Meru on the eastern e ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

.The District covers an area of . and has an max elevation of . Meru District is bordered to the north by

Longido District Longido is one of the six districts in the Arusha Region of Tanzania. The District covers an area of . It is bordered to the east by the Ngorongoro District, to the south west by the Monduli District and Southeast by the Arusha Rural District a ...

, to the east by Siha and Hai Districts of

Kilimanjaro Region Kilimanjaro Region (''Mkoa wa Kilimanjaro'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital and largest city is the municipality of Moshi. With a HDI of 0.613, Kilimajaro is one among the most developed regions ...

, to the south by

Simanjiro District Simanjiro District is one of the six districts of the Manyara Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by Arusha Region, to the north east by Kilimanjaro Region, to the south east by Tanga Region, to the south by Kiteto District Kiteto ...

Manyara Region Manyara Region (''Mkoa wa Manyara'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the town of Babati. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 1,425,131, which was lower than th ...

, and to the west by

Arusha Rural District Arusha District Council (also known as Arusha Rural District) is one of the seven districts of the Arusha Region of Tanzania. It is bordered to the north by Longido District, to the east by Meru District, to the south by Kilimanjaro Region, and ...

and Arusha Urban District. The administrative capital of the council is Usa River. According to the 2012 Tanzania National Census, the population of Meru District council was 268,144.

Notable persons from Meru District

* Peter K. Palangyo, Tanzanian novelist and diplomat

Etymology

The district is named after

Mount Meru Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु), also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru, is the sacred five-peaked mountain of Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist cosmology and is considered to be the centre of all the physical, metaphysical and spiritu ...

, which is named after the Rwa people.

History

First communities

The first communities in what would be the Meru District were the now extinct Koningo people, a hunter gatherer group that lived around the slopes of

for centuries. The second community to settle in the area is the Meru People, who immigrated there from the

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges of approximately long and about half that wide, are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tang ...

Tanga Region Tanga Region (''Mkoa wa Tanga'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Burundi. The regional capital is the mun ...

. They settled on the southeastern slopes of the mountain and started to farm the land.

Transport

The paved trunk road T2 from

Arusha Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern bran ...

to Moshi passes through the district.

Administrative subdivisions

Wards

As of 2012, Meru District was administratively divided into 17 wards: * Akheri * Kikatiti * Kikwe * King'ori * Leguruki * Maji ya Chai * Makiba * Maroroni * Mbuguni * Ngarenanyuki * Nkoanrua * Nkoaranga * Nkoarisambu *

Poli __NOTOC__ Poli can refer to: Food * ''Puran Poli'', a poli made up of wheat flour and puran (sweet cooked gram paste) * A Marathi name for ''chapati'', a bread made up of wheat flour Organisations * FC Timişoara Romanian first league football c ...

* Seela Sing'isi * Songoro, Meru * Usa River

References

{{Districts of Arusha Districts of Arusha Region