The Tsavo region lies to the south of Kenya close to the borders with Tanzania in the basin of the Tsavo river close to where it meets the Athi River. The Tsavo region had been inhabited for thousands of years by hunter-gatherers, and later by the Kamba people moving through the region herding their livestock or looking for honey. The region achieved notoriety in 1898 during the building of the Mombasa-Nairobi railway, when a pair of lions terrorized the railway workers building a bridge. During a 10-month period the lions killed at least 28 people. The ordeal was put to an end by Lt. Col. John Henry Patterson, who was in charge of the bridge-building, after extensive stalking and baiting. The stuffed body of the two lions can be seen today in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

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