Volcanoes That Connect Old Friends

“Slowly by slowly,” as people say here, we’ve been building a library of tales from the Virunga volcanoes, of the lakes that cradle them, and the towns that breathe beneath their gaze. Years into this journey, the time has come to shine a deeper light on this sacred spine of the Gorilla Highlands region.

Here, where the ancient peak of Sabyinyo — “old man’s teeth” — rises to 3,669 metres (11,959 feet), Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet. Like old friends gathered at the crossroads of memory and myth, they are waiting to be befriended by you. Week by week, we will return you to these lands shaped by storied heights: mountains that divide and unite, that sleep in centuries of silence or stir with the breath of fire.

This photograph, captured by Marcus Westberg from the shores of Uganda’s Lake Mutanda, looks across the water toward the silhouettes of Rwanda and DR Congo. These words are sent into the world from the other side, from behind the shoulders of Muhabura (“the guide,” 4,127 m/13,540 ft) and Gahinga (“pile of stones,” 3,474 m/11,398 ft) — two sentinels of a region both eternal and alive.