- First Gorge: the one the river falls into at Victoria Falls
- Second Gorge: 250 m south of falls, 2.15 km long (270 yd south, 2350 yd long), spanned by the Victoria Falls Bridge
- Third Gorge: 600 m south, 1.95 km long (650 yd south, 2100 yd long), containing the Victoria Falls Power Station
- Fourth Gorge: 1.15 km south, 2.25 km long (1256 yd south, 2460 yd long)
- Fifth Gorge: 2.55 km south, 3.2 km long (1.5 mi south, 2 mi (3.2 km) long)
- Songwe Gorge: 5.3 km south, 3.3 km long, (3.3 mi south, 2 mi (3.2 km) long) named after the small Songwe River coming from the north-east, and the deepest at 140 m (460 ft), the level of the river in them varies by up to 20 meters (65 ft) between wet and dry seasons.
Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya (Tokaleya Tonga: The Smoke That Thunders), is a waterfall in
southern Africa on
the Zambezi Riverat
the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has been
described by CNN as
one of the Seven Natural
Wonders of the world.
David Livingstone,
the Scottish missionary and explorer, is believed to have been the first
European to view Victoria Falls on 16 November 1855, from what is now known as
Livingstone Island, one of two land masses in the middle of the river,
immediately upstream from the falls near the Zambian shore. Livingstone named
his discovery in honour of Queen Victoria of Britain,
but the indigenous Tonganame,
Mosi-oa-Tunya—"The Smoke That Thunders"—continues in common usage as
well. The World
Heritage List officially recognizes both names.
The
nearby national park in Zambia is named Mosi-oa-Tunya, whereas the
national park and town on the Zimbabwean shore are both named Victoria Falls.
Size
While
it is neither the highest nor the widest waterfall in the world, Victoria
Falls is classified as the largest, based on its combined width of 1,708
metres (5,604 ft) and height of 108 metres
(354 ft), resulting in the world's largest sheet of falling water.
Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of North America's Niagara Falls and
well over twice the width of its Horseshoe Falls. In
height and width Victoria Falls is rivalled only by Argentina and
Brazil's Iguazu
Falls. See table for
comparisons.
For a
considerable distance upstream from the falls, the Zambezi flows over a level
sheet of basalt, in a
shallow valley,
bounded by low and distant sandstone hills. The
river's course is dotted with numerous tree-covered islands, which increase in
number as the river approaches the falls. There are no mountains, escarpments, or deep
valleys; only a flat plateauextending
hundreds of kilometres in all directions.
The
falls are formed as the full width of the river plummets in a single vertical
drop into a transverse chasm 1708 metres (5604 ft) wide, carved by its
waters along a fracture zone in the basalt plateau. The depth of the chasm,
called the First Gorge, varies from
80 metres (260 ft) at its western end to 108 metres (354 ft) in the
centre. The only outlet to the First Gorge is a 110-metre (360 ft) wide
gap about two-thirds of the way across the width of the falls from the western
end, through which the whole volume of the river pours into the Victoria Falls
gorges.
There
are two islands on the crest of the falls that are large enough to divide the
curtain of water even at full flood: Boaruka Island (or Cataract Island) near
the western bank, and Livingstone Island near the middle—the point from which
Livingstone first viewed the falls. At less than full flood, additional islets
divide the curtain of water into separate parallel streams. The main streams
are named, in order from Zimbabwe (west) to Zambia (east): Devil's Cataract (called Leaping Water by some), Main Falls, Rainbow Falls (the highest) and the Eastern Cataract.
The
Zambezi river, upstream from the falls, experiences a rainy season from
late November to early April, and a dry season the rest
of the year. The river's annual flood season is February
to May with a peak in April, The spray from the falls typically rises to
a height of over 400 metres (1,300 ft), and sometimes even twice as high,
and is visible from up to 48 km (30 mi) away. At full moon, a "moonbow"
can be seen in the spray instead of the usual daylight rainbow. During the
flood season, however, it is impossible to see the foot of the falls and most
of its face, and the walks along the cliff opposite it are in a constant
shower and shrouded in mist. Close to the edge of the cliff, spray shoots
upward like inverted rain, especially at Zambia's Knife-Edge Bridge.
As the
dry season takes effect, the islets on the crest become wider and more
numerous, and in September to January up to half of the rocky face of the
falls may become dry and the bottom of the First Gorge can be seen along most
of its length. At this time it becomes possible (though not necessarily safe)
to walk across some stretches of the river at the crest. It is also possible
to walk to the bottom of the First Gorge at the Zimbabwean side. The minimum
flow, which occurs in November, is around a tenth of the April figure; this
variation in flow is greater than that of other major falls, and causes
Victoria Falls' annual average flow rate to be lower than might be expected
based on the maximum flow.
Gorges
The
entire volume of the Zambezi River pours through the First Gorge's
110-metre-wide (360 ft) exit for a distance of about 150 metres
(500 ft), then enters a zigzagging series of gorges designated by the
order in which the river reaches them. Water entering the Second Gorge makes a sharp right turn
and has carved out a deep pool there called the Boiling Pot. Reached via a steep footpath from the Zambian
side, it is about 150 metres (500 ft) across. Its surface is smooth at
low water, but at high water is marked by enormous, slow swirls and heavy
boiling turbulence. Objects – and humans – that are swept over
the falls, including the occasional hippopotamus or crocodile, are frequently
found swirling about here or washed up at the north-east end of the Second
Gorge. This is where the bodies of Mrs Moss and Mr Orchard, mutilated by
crocodiles, were found in 1910 after two canoes were capsized by a hippo at
Long Island above the falls. The principal gorges are (see reference for
note about these measurements):
Formation
The
recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the form of the
gorges below the falls. The basalt plateau
over which the Upper Zambezi flows has many large cracks filled with weaker
sandstone. In the area of the current falls the largest cracks run roughly
east to west (some run nearly north-east to south-west), with smaller
north-south cracks connecting them.
Over
at least 100,000 years, the falls have been receding upstream through the
Batoka Gorges, eroding the sandstone-filled cracks to form the gorges. The
river's course in the current vicinity of the falls is north to south, so it
opens up the large east-west cracks across its full width, then it cuts back
through a short north-south crack to the next east-west one. The river has
fallen in different eras into different chasms which now form a series of
sharply zig-zagging gorges downstream from the falls.
Apart
from some dry sections, the Second to Fifth and the Songwe Gorges each
represents a past site of the falls at a time when they fell into one long
straight chasm as they do now. Their sizes indicate that we are not
living in the age of the widest-ever falls.
The
falls have already started cutting back the next major gorge, at the dip in
one side of the "Devil's Cataract" (also known as "Leaping
Waters") section of the falls. This is not actually a north-south crack,
but a large east-northeast line of weakness across the river, where the next
full-width falls will eventually form.
Further
geological history of the course of the Zambezi River is
in the article
of that name.
Pre-colonial history
Archaeological
sites around the falls have yielded Homo habilis stone artifacts from 3 million years
ago, 50,000-year-old Middle Stone Age tools and Late Stone Age (10,000
and 2,000 years ago) weapons, adornments and digging
tools. Iron-using Khoisan hunter-gatherers displaced
these Stone Age people and in turn were displaced by Bantu tribes such
as the southern Tonga people known as the Batoka/Tokalea, who called
the falls Shungu na mutitima.
The Matabele,
later arrivals, named them aManz'
aThunqayo, and the Batswana and Makololo (whose
language is used by the Lozi people) call
them Mosi-o-Tunya. All these names
mean essentially "the smoke that thunders".
A map
from c. 1750 drawn by Jacques Nicolas
Bellin for Abbé Antoine François Prevost d'Exiles marks the falls as
"cataractes" and notes a settlement to the north of the Zambezi as
being friendly with the Portuguese at the time. Earlier still Nicolas de Fer's 1715
map of southern Africa has the fall clearly marked in the correct position. It
also has dotted lines denoting trade routes that David Livingstone followed
140 years later.
The
first European to see the falls was David Livingstone on
17 November 1855, during his 1852–56 journey from the upper Zambezi to the
mouth of the river. The falls were well known to local tribes, and Voortrekker hunters
may have known of them, as may the Arabs under a name equivalent to "the
end of the world". Europeans were sceptical of their reports, perhaps
thinking that the lack of mountains and valleys on the plateau made a large
falls unlikely.
Livingstone
had been told about the falls before he reached them from upriver and was
paddled across to a small island that now bears the name Livingstone Island in
Zambia. Livingstone had previously been impressed by the Ngonye Falls further
upstream, but found the new falls much more impressive, and gave them their
English name in honour of Queen Victoria. He
wrote of the falls, "No one can imagine the beauty of the view from
anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes;
but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their
flight."
In
1860, Livingstone returned to the area and made a detailed study of the falls
with John
Kirk. Other early European visitors included Portuguese explorer Serpa Pinto, Czechexplorer Emil Holub, who made the
first detailed plan of the falls and its surroundings in 1875 (published in
1880), and British artist Thomas Baines, who
executed some of the earliest paintings of the falls. Until the area was
opened up by the building of the railway in 1905, though, the falls were
seldom visited by other Europeans. Some writers believe that the Portuguese
priest Gonçalo
da Silveira was the first European to catch sight of the falls back
in the sixteenth century.
History
since 1900
Victoria Falls Bridge initiates tourism
European
settlement of the Victoria Falls area started around 1900 in response to the
desire of Cecil
Rhodes' British
South Africa Company for mineral rights and
imperial rule north of the Zambezi, and the exploitation of other natural
resources such as timber forests north-east of the falls, and ivory and animal
skins. Before 1905, the river was crossed above the falls at the Old Drift,
by dugout canoe or
a barge towed across with a steel cable. Rhodes' vision of a Cape-Cairo railway drove
plans for the first bridge across the Zambezi and he insisted it be built
where the spray from the falls would fall on passing trains, so the site at
the Second Gorge was chosen. See the main article Victoria Falls
Bridge for details. From 1905 the railway offered accessible
travel (mainly to whites) from as far as the Cape in the south and
from 1909, as far as the Belgian Congo in
the north. In 1904 the Victoria Falls Hotel was
opened to accommodate (white) visitors arriving on the new railway. The falls
became an increasingly popular attraction during British colonial
rule of Northern
Rhodesia (Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe),
with the town of Victoria Falls becoming
the main tourist centre.
Zambia's independence and Rhodesia's UDI
In
1964, Northern Rhodesia became the independent state of Zambia. The following
year, Rhodesia unilaterally declared
independence. This was not recognized by Zambia, the United Kingdom nor
the vast majority of states and led to United Nations-mandated
sanctions. In response to the emerging crisis, in 1966 Zambia restricted or
stopped border crossings; it did not re-open the border completely until
1980. Guerilla
warfare arose on the southern side of the Zambezi from 1972:
the Rhodesian
Bush War. Visitor numbers began to drop, particularly on the Rhodesian
side. The war affected Zambia through military incursions, causing the latter
to impose security measures including the stationing of soldiers to restrict
access to the gorges and some parts of the falls.
Zimbabwe's
internationally recognised independence in 1980 brought comparative peace, and
the 1980s witnessed renewed levels of tourism and the development of the
region as a centre for adventure sports.
Activities that gained popularity in the area include whitewater rafting in
the gorges, bungee
jumping from the bridge, game fishing, horse riding, kayaking, and flights over
the falls.
Tourism in recent years
By the
end of the 1990s almost 400,000 people were visiting the falls annually, and
this was expected to rise to over a million in the next decade. Unlike the
game parks, Victoria Falls has more Zimbabwean and Zambian visitors than
international tourists; the attraction is accessible by bus and train, and is
therefore comparatively inexpensive to reach.
Both
countries permit tourists to make day trips across the border to view the
falls from both viewpoints. Visitors with single-entry visas are required to
purchase a visa each time they cross the border; visas can be obtained at both
border posts. Costs vary from US$50–$80 (as of January 2017). Visa regulations
change frequently; visitors are advised to check the rules currently in effect
in both countries before crossing the border in either direction.
Additionally, foreign tourists may purchase a KAZA visa for US$50 that will
permit visitors to travel between Zambia and Zimbabwe for up to 30 days as
long as they remain within the covered countries.
A
famous feature is the naturally formed "Armchair" (now sometimes
called "Devil's Pool"), near the edge of the falls on Livingstone
Island on the Zambian side. When the river flow is at a certain level, usually
between September and December, a rock barrier forms an eddy with minimal
current, allowing adventurous swimmers to splash around in relative safety a
few feet from the point where the water cascades over the
falls. Occasional deaths have been reported when people have slipped over
the rock barrier.
The
numbers of visitors to the Zimbabwean side of the falls has historically been
much higher than the number visiting the Zambia side, due to the greater
development of the visitor facilities there. However, the number of tourists
visiting Zimbabwe began to decline in the early 2000s as political tensions
between supporters and opponents of president Robert Mugabe increased.
In 2006, hotel occupancy on the Zimbabwean side hovered at around 30%, while
the Zambian side was at near-capacity, with rates in top hotels reaching US$630 per
night. The rapid development has prompted the United Nations to
consider revoking the Falls' status as a World Heritage Site. In
addition, problems of waste disposal and a lack of effective management of the
falls' environment are a concern.
National parks
The
two national parks at the falls are relatively small – Mosi-oa-Tunya
National Park is 66 square kilometres (16,309 acres) and Victoria
Falls National Park is 23 square kilometres (5,683 acres). However,
next to the latter on the southern bank is the Zambezi National
Park, extending 40 kilometres (25 mi) west along the
river. Animals can move between the two Zimbabwean parks and can also
reach Matetsi
Safari Area, Kazuma Pan
National Park and Hwange National Park to
the south.
On the
Zambian side, fences and the outskirts of Livingstone tend to confine most
animals to the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. In addition fences put up by
lodges in response to crime restrict animal movement.
In
2004 a separate group of police called the Tourism Police was started. They
are commonly seen around the main tourist areas, and can be identified by
their uniforms with yellow reflective bibs.
Vegetation
Mopane woodland savannah predominates
in the area, with smaller areas of miombo and Rhodesian teak
woodland and scrubland
savannah. Riverine forest with palm trees lines the banks and islands
above the falls. The most notable aspect of the area's vegetation though is
the rainforest nurtured
by the spray from the falls, containing plants rare for the area such as pod mahogany, ebony, ivory palm, wild date palm and
a number of creepers and lianas. Vegetation has suffered in recent
droughts, and so have the animals that depend on it, particularly antelope.
Wildlife
The
national parks contain abundant wildlife including sizable populations
of elephant, buffalo, giraffe, Grant's zebra, and a
variety of antelope. Katanga lions, African leopards and South African
cheetahs are only occasionally seen. Vervet monkeys and baboons are common. The
river above the falls contains large populations of hippopotamus and crocodile. African bush
elephants cross the river in the dry season at particular crossing
points.
Klipspringers, honey badgers, lizards and clawless otters can
be glimpsed in the gorges, but they are mainly known for 35 species of raptors. The Taita falcon, black eagle, peregrine falcon and augur buzzard breed
there. Above the falls, herons, fish eagles and
numerous kinds of waterfowl are
common.
Fish
The
river is home to 39 species of fish below the falls and 89
species above it. This illustrates the effectiveness of the falls as a
dividing barrier between the upper and lower Zambezi.
Statistics
|
Parameters
|
Victoria
Falls
|
|
Niagara Falls
|
|
Iguazu Falls
|
|
|
Height in meters and feet:
|
108
m
|
360 ft
|
51 m
|
167 ft
|
64–82
m
|
210–269 ft
|
|
Width in meters and feet:
|
1,708
m
|
5,604 ft
|
1,203
m
|
3,947 ft
|
2,700
m
|
8,858 ft
|
|
Flow rate units (vol/s):
|
m3/s
|
cu ft/s
|
m3/s
|
cu ft/s
|
m3/s
|
cu ft/s
|
|
Mean annual flow rate:
|
1,088
|
38,430
|
2,407
|
85,000
|
1,746
|
61,600
|
|
Mean monthly flow – max.:
|
3,000
|
105,944
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mean monthly flow – min.:
|
300
|
10,594
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mean monthly flow – 10 yr. max.:
|
6,000
|
211,888
|
|
|
|
|
|
Highest recorded flow:
|
12,800
|
452,000
|
6,800
|
240,000
|
45,700
|
1,614,000
|