Why it looks like this

The Uganda Railway needed a flat staging ground before the climb into the highlands, and picked a cold swamp the Maasai called 'place of cool waters' — Nairobi. The depot became the colonial capital almost by accident, its centre gridded between the rail yards and the river, with segregated quarters that still echo in the city's east–west divides.

The map's strangest edge is the southern one: Nairobi National Park, 117 km² of open savanna with lions, giraffes and rhinos, begins directly against the city — skyscrapers on the horizon of a game reserve.