The mountain also attracts tourists for hiking and wildlife activities, though in small numbers. The two nearest cities are Dompu and Bima. There are three concentrations of villages around the mountain slope. At the east is Sanggar village, to the northwest are Doro Peti and Pesanggrahan villages, and to the west is Calabai village. There are two routes of ascent to the caldera. The first begins at Doro Mboha village on the southeast of the mountain and follows a paved road through a cashew plantation to an elevation of . The road terminates at the southern part of the caldera, which at is reachable only by hiking. This location is only one hour from the caldera, and usually serves as a base camp from which volcanic activity can be monitored. The second route starts from Pancasila village at the northwest of the mountain and is only accessible on foot. The hike from Pancasila at elevation to the caldera of the volcano takes approximately 14 hours with several stops ("pos") en route to the top. The trail leads through dense jungle with wildlife such as "Elaeocarpus batudulangii", Asian water monitor, reticulated python, hawks, orange-footed scrubfowl, pale-shouldered cicadabird ("Coracina dohertyi"), brown and scaly-crowned honeyeater, yellow-crested cockatoo, yellow-ringed white-eye, helmeted friarbird, wild boar, Javan rusa and crab-eating macaques. Tambora is located north of the Java Trench system and above the upper surface of the active north-dipping subduction zone. Sumbawa Island is flanked to the north and south by oceanic crust. The convergence rate of the Australian Plate beneath the Sunda Plate is per year. Estimates for the onset of the volcanism at Mount Tambora range from 57, to 43 ka. The latter estimate published in 2012 is based on argon dating of the first pre-caldera lava flows. The formation of Tambora drained a large magma chamber pre-existing under the mountain. The Mojo islet was formed as part of this geological process in which Saleh Bay first appeared as a sea basin about 25,000 years BP. A high volcanic cone with a single central vent formed before the 1815 eruption, which follows a stratovolcano shape. The diameter at the base is .