Buea is a small city on the slopes of Mount Cameroon, the highest peak in West Africa at 4,040 metres, in Cameroon's South West Region. It sits at around 1,000 metres above sea level, which gives it a notably cooler climate than the hot, humid coast 70 kilometres to the southwest at Limbe. Buea was the capital of German Kamerun before the First World War and retains a few colonial-era buildings.
The city is primarily a base for climbing Mount Cameroon. The mountain is an active stratovolcano with regular eruptions — most recently in 1999 and 2000 — and the hike to the summit is one of Cameroon's most popular serious treks, typically done in two or three days with guides and porters. The mountain's lower slopes are covered in montane forest; the upper sections are lava fields and cloud-shrouded plateaus. The view on a clear day extends to the Bight of Biafra.
Buea is an English-speaking city in Cameroon's Anglophone minority region, and the University of Buea makes it a young, student-oriented town. It is also the starting point for visits to Limbe and the country's Atlantic coast.