It cuts a picturesque backdrop to the east of the Blantyre-Zomba Road as motorists cruise past Njuli, aiming to perhaps stop and catch their breath at Namadzi, an intriguing town by a river of the same name on the Zomba District border.

Whilst there are no doubt mythological explanations among the surrounding tribal peoples as to how the mountain acquired its shape, geomorphology would suggest that this is the product of millennia of faulting activity coupled by the chiselling effects of wind erosion on the bare rock outcrops.

Midway through the course of its descent up the mountain, the road cuts through a plateaux-like plain between the two peaks, on which the British colonial government established an administrative settlement housing offices, a tourist information centre, and staff accommodation.

Chiradzulu Mountain was for a long time home to a variety of wildlife, including lions, hyenas, foxes, jackals, baboons, monkeys, antelope, wild pigs, and the fabled leopards.

[1] The origins of the name "Chiradzulu" are murky and can be traced back to an old myth supposedly derived from hunters who had forgotten to bring home the tail of a leopard they had killed on a hunting expedition.

On realising their foolish lapse of memory the morning after their hunting expedition, the band of hunters reorganised and retraced their steps to the place up in the mountain where they had had their kill.