Shire Highlands

The Shire Highlands are a plateau in southern Malawi, located east of the Shire River. It is a major agricultural area and the most densely populated part of the country.

The highlands cover an area of roughly 7250 square kilometers. the plateau varies in elevation from 600 to 1100 meters, with various hills and mountains rising higher. The highest peak is Zomba Mountain at 2087 meters. The highlands are bounded on the west and south by the valley of the Shire River, an extension of the African Rift Valley. The Phalombe Plain slopes gently towards Lake Chilwa to the northeast, and separates the highlands from the taller Mulanje Massif to the east. Streams originating in the highlands drain west, south, and southeast towards the Shire River, or northeast into the closed basin of Lake Chilwa.

The highlands have a cooler climate and more rainfall than the surrounding lowlands, and are home to distinct forests, woodlands, and grasslands that make up the South Malawi montane forest-grassland mosaic.

The northernmost portion of the plateau includes a line of hills – Chinduzi, Mongolowe, Chaone, and Chikala – that extend 40 km east and west. The taller Zomba Plateau south of them. The northern hills are made up of syenite and nepheline syenite, and the Zomba plateau is made up of syenite and quartz syenite, which intruded into the much older Precambrian igneous and metamorphic rocks that compose much of the highlands. The central portion includes numerous hills and mountains, including Chiradzulu (1774 m), Ndirande (1613 m), Soche (1533 m), and Michiru (1474 m). Thyolo Mountain lies at the southern end of the highlands.

Yao are the predominant people of the northern highlands, and Chewa people in the center and south. The Lomwe people also live in the highlands.

Blantyre is the largest city in the highlands. Zomba is the second-largest, and served as the capital of Nyasaland and independent Malawi until 1975. Thyolo is a center of tea production.

Archeological evidence shows the highlands have been populated for thousands of years.

In the middle of the 19th century, Yao people migrated eastwards from the northern Mozambican coast, and established chiefdoms in the highlands – Malemia (Domasi), Mlumbe (Zomba), Kawinga (Chikala), Mpama (Chiradzulu), and Kapeni and Somba (in Blantyre District). The Yao chiefs were involved in the trade of ivory and slaves, centered on the Mozambican port of Quelimane.