The Man-Eaters of Tsavo · Two Lions at the Railway Works

In 1898 the British were building the Uganda Railway in Kenya. At the bridge works on the Tsavo River workers went missing one after another; at night men were dragged out of their tents.

The work stopped for several weeks. The man in charge kept watch himself and eventually shot two male lions without manes. The number of dead workers is usually given as around thirty. The affair was later made into a frontiersman’s book and a film: the two lions ate the men who were building the bridge.

The skins are in a museum in the United States today. The bridge on the railway is still in use.

Historical Mysteries / Tsavo · Kenya / 1898