Kigali capital of the kingdom was at Nyanza, in the south of the country. The city of Kigali was founded in 1907 by German administrator and explorer Richard Kandt. Rwanda and neighbouring Burundi had been assigned to Germany by the Berlin Conference of 1884, and Germany established a presence in the country in 1897 with the formation of an alliance with the king, Yuhi V Musinga. Kandt arrived in 1899, exploring Lake Kivu and searching for the source of the Nile. When Germany decided in 1907 to separate the administration of Rwanda from that of Burundi, Kandt was appointed as the
Kigali three administrative districts—Nyarugenge, which lies in the south west, Kicukiro in the south east, and Gasabo, which occupies the northern half of the city's territory. Kigali lies in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. Kigali lies between the two mountains of Mount Kigali and Mount Jali, both of which have altitudes over , while the lowest areas of the city have an altitude of . Geologically, the city lies in a granitic and metasedimentary region, with lateritic soils on the hills and alluvial soils in the valleys. The Nyabarongo River,