Capital Bujumbura
Largest city Bujumbura
Official language(s) Kirundi, French
Population
7,548,000
Currency Burundi franc
Calling code +257

The earlier inhabitants of the region were Pygmy peoples. They were mostly replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes during Bantu migrations. Burundi existed as an independent kingdom from the 16th century.

In 1903, it turned a German colony and passed by to Belgium in World War I. It was part of the Belgian League of Nations mandate of Ruanda-Urundi in 1923, in the future a United Nations Trust Territory under Belgian administrative authority as a consequence World War II. The origins of Burundi monarchy are veiled in myth.

According to a few legends, Ntare Rushatsi, beginner of the original dynasty, came to Burundi derived from Rwanda in 17th century extra, more reliable sources, suggest that Ntare come caused by Buha, in the south-east, and laid the base for his kingdom in the Nkoma region.

Until the fall of the monarchy in 1966, kingship remained one of last links that bound Burundi by owning its past.

Burundi is a landlocked country by having an equatorial climate.Named "The heart of Africa" it lies on a rolling plateau, sustaining Lake Tanganyika in its south west corner. The typical elevation of the primal plateau is 5,600 feet, by owning less elevations at the borderlines.

The highest peak, Mount Karonje, at 8,809 feet (2,685 m), lies to the southeast of the capital, Bujumbura. The southeastern and southern borderlines are at roughly 4,500 feet. A landing strip of land along the Ruzizi River, north of Lake Tanganyika, is the just region below 3,000 feet (915 m): this area forms part of the Albertine Rift, the western extension of the Great Rift Valley.

The land is mostly agricultural or pasture, the creation of which has led to deforestation, soil erosion & habitat loss. In that location are two national parks, Kibira National Park to the northwesterly (a area of montane rainforest, adjacent to Nyungwe Forest National Park in Rwanda), Rurubu National Park to the north east (by the Rurubu River, also known as Ruvubu or Ruvuvu).

The farthest headstream of the Nile is in Burundi. Though Lake Victoria is usually regarded to be the source of the Nile, the Kagera River flows for 429 miles (690 km) prior to reaching Lake Victoria. The origin of the Ruvyironza River, an upper branch of the Kagera River, is at Mount Kikizi in Burundi.