Victoria Falls (Lozi: Mosi-oa-Tunya, "Thundering Smoke/Smoke that Rises"; Tonga: Shungu Namutitima, "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River, located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the world's largest waterfalls, with a width of 1,708 m (5,604 ft).
Are you dreaming of witnessing one of the most awe-inspiring natural wonders on Earth? Look no further than Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls, known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya or "The Smoke That Thunders," is renowned as the largest waterfall in the world by both width and water volume.
Approximately twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara Falls, the waterfall spans the entire breadth of the Zambezi River at one of its widest points (more than 5,500 feet [1,700 metres]). At the falls, the river plunges over a sheer precipice to a maximum drop of 355 feet (108 metres).
The falls’ mean flow is almost 33,000 cubic feet (935 cubic metres) per second. The Zambezi River does not gather speed as it nears the drop, the approach being signaled only by the mighty roar and characteristic veil of mist for which the Kalolo-Lozi people named the falls Mosi-oa-Tunya (“The Smoke That Thunders”).
History and Discovery
Archaeology and oral history describe a long record of African knowledge of the site. Although known to some European geographers before the 19th century, Scottish missionary David Livingstone identified the falls in 1855, naming them Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. David Livingstone was the first European recorded to have viewed the falls on 16 November 1855, from an island 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.
Read also: The Giants of Africa's Forests
He named them for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. Livingstone named his sighting in honour of Queen Victoria, but the Lozi language name, Mosi-oa-Tunya-"The Smoke That Thunders"-continues in common usage.
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, Czech explorer 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. 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. 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.
3 Days at Victoria Falls (Africa’s Greatest Waterfall)
Geological Formation
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 when the river approaches the falls.
Read also: World's largest football stadium in Morocco
The falls are formed where the full width of the river plummets in a single vertical drop into a transverse chasm 1,708 metres (5,604 ft) wide, carved 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 from the First Gorge is a 110-metre-wide (360 ft) gap about two-thirds of the way across the width of the falls from the western end.
Two islands are situated on the crest of the falls: Boaruka Island (or Cataract Island) near the western bank, and Livingstone Island near the middle. At less than full flood, additional islets divide the curtain of water into separate parallel streams.
The recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the overall form of the Batoka Gorge, with its six individual gorges and eight past positions of the falls. The east-west oriented gorges imply structural control with alignment along joints of shatter zones, or faults with 50 metres (160 ft) of vertical displacement as is the case of the second and fifth gorges. Headward erosion along these structural lines of weakness would establish a new fall line and abandonment of the earlier line. North-south oriented joints control the south flowing sections of the river.
The falls may have already started cutting back the next major gorge, at the dip in one side of the "Devil's Cataract", between the western river bank and Cataract Island. The sedimentary sequence overlying the basalt at the Zambezi River margins is called the Victoria Falls Formation, which consists of gravel, the Pipe sandstone, Kalahari sand, aeolian sand and alluvium.
River Flow and Seasons
The River Zambezi, 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), sometimes up to twice as high, and is visible from up to 50 km (30 mi) away. At full moon, a "moonbow" can also be seen.
Read also: Premier Shopping Guide: Africa
When the dry season takes effect, the islets on the crest become wider and more numerous. From September to January, up to half of the rocky face of the falls may become dry, allowing the bottom of the First Gorge to 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 the Victoria Falls' annual average flow rate to be lower than might be expected based on the maximum flow. In 2019 unusually low rain dramatically reduced the fall to the lowest flow in a century.
The entire volume of the Zambezi River pours through the First Gorge's 110 m (360 ft) wide exit for a distance of about 150 m (490 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 m (490 ft) across.
Local Names and Early Maps
The southern Tonga people known as the Batoka/Tokalea 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.
A map drawn by Nicolas de Fer in 1715 shows the fall clearly marked in the correct position. It also shows dotted lines denoting trade routes that David Livingstone followed 140 years later.
Tourism and Activities
Since the mid-20th century, the site has been a major tourist destination. Zambia and Zimbabwe both have national parks and tourism infrastructure at the site.
From 1905 the railway offered accessible travel 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 visitors arriving on the new railway.
Zimbabwe's internationally recognized 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. 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.
The numbers of visitors to the Zimbabwean side of the falls has historically been much higher than the number visiting the Zambian 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.
Victoria Falls is also Africa’s adventure capital. The town is known for its grade 5 rapids where white water rafting and kayaking are done. There is also a golf course, at the Elephant Hills Hotel, which held a tournament on the South African Tour in the 1970s, the Victoria Falls Classic.
Here is a list of activities that you can do while visiting Victoria Falls:
- White Water Rafting: One of the most exhilarating activities, offering a different perspective of the falls.
- Bungee Jumping: A 111m drop from the Victoria Falls Bridge straight down to the Zambezi River.
- Helicopter Ride: A 15-minute flight offering a bird's-eye view of the falls.
- Day Trip to Chobe National Park: A full day of game drives and boat rides on the Chobe River.
- Sunset Cruise: A relaxing cruise on the Zambezi River, offering the chance to see wildlife.
- The Royal Livingstone Express: An opulent five-course dinner service on a 1920s steam train that stops on the Victoria Falls Bridge.
National Parks and Wildlife
The two national parks at the falls are relatively small- Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is 66 km2 (25 sq mi) and Victoria Falls National Park is 23 km2 (8.9 sq mi). On the Zambian side, fences and the outskirts of Livingstone tend to confine most animals to the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park.
On Botswana’s side of the border, Chobe National Park is a short distance to travel to and is a popular location for a day trip for many tourists visiting Victoria Falls for extended stays. The national parks contain abundant wildlife including sizeable populations of African bush elephant, Cape buffalo, giraffe, Grant's zebra, and a variety of antelope. Lions, African leopards and South African cheetahs are only occasionally seen. Vervet monkeys and baboons are common.
Southern white rhinoceroses inhabit Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park. Black rhinoceroses roam Victoria Falls Private Game Reserve. The river above the falls contains large populations of hippopotamus and Nile crocodile. 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, Verreaux's eagle, peregrine falcon and augur buzzard breed there. The river is home to 39 species of fish below the falls and 84 species above it.
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, batoko plum and creepers and lianas.
Outside the riparian zone, mopane woodland savannah predominates in the area, with smaller areas of miombo and Rhodesian teak woodland and shrubland savannah.
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls is the world’s greatest sheet of falling water and significant worldwide for its exceptional geological and geomorphological features and active land formation processes with outstanding beauty attributed to the falls i.e. the spray, mist and rainbows. This transboundary property extends over 6860 ha and comprises 3779 ha of the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park (Zambia), 2340 ha of Victoria Falls National Park (Zimbabwe), 741 ha of the riverine strip of Zambezi National Park (Zimbabwe).
A riverine strip of the Zambezi National Park extending 9 km west along the right bank of the Zambezi and islands in the river are all within the Park as far as Palm and Kandahar Islands, with the Victoria Falls being one of the major attractions. Sprays from this giant waterfall can be seen from a distance of 30 km from the Lusaka road, Zambia and 50 km from Bulawayo road, Zimbabwe.
Basalts have been cut by a river system producing a series of eight spectacular gorges that serve as breeding sites for four species of endangered birds.
Criterion (vii): The Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls is the largest curtain of falling water in the world; it is 1708 m wide and with up to 500 million litres per minute descending at 61 m (Devil’s Cataract), 83 m (Main Falls), 99 m (Rainbow Falls), 98 m (Eastern Cataract). Eight spectacular gorges of igneous origin (i.e. comprising basalts) and several islands in the core zone serve as breeding sites for four endangered and migratory bird species, such as the Taita Falcon and Black Eagle.
Criterion (viii): The Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls and associated eight steep sided gorges have been formed through the changing waterfall positions over a geological time scale. The gorges are an outstanding example of river capture and the erosive forces of the water still continue to sculpture the hard basalts. These gorges take a zigzag course of a distance of about 150 km along the Zambezi River below the falls. Seven previous waterfalls occupied the seven gorges below the present falls, and the Devil's Cataract in Zimbabwe is the starting point for cutting back to a new waterfall.
The transboundary property extends over 6860 ha, which is considered relatively intact and adequately sized to maintain the diverse natural processes, functions and interactions including the waterfall, gorges, riverine ecosystem, breeding ground, habitat or landing base for migratory endangered bird species making it an Important Bird Area (IBA), lava flows, ancient stone artefacts and tools for hunter-gatherers.
Practical Information for Visitors
Victoria Falls is more than a place to visit-it’s a journey to plan thoughtfully. Decide which side you want to focus on-Zimbabwe for panoramic views, or Zambia for up-close thrills-or get the KAZA Univisa and do both. Book your activities ahead, especially in peak months.
Both Zambia and Zimbabwe require nearly all foreign nationalities to have a visa to enter. There is the option of a single entry visa to either country (approx USD $30-50 depending on nationality), but you can also get the KAZA visa (also known as a UniVisa). This enables the holder to freely travel between Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well do a day trip to Chobe National Park in Botswana through the Kazungula border. It is valid for 30 days and allows unlimited border crossings.
You can get the KAZA visa on arrival at the following points of entry: Victoria Falls airport, Livingstone airport, Harare airport, Lusaka airport or at the Kazungula land border at Botswana. You need to specify your preference for this visa and provide $50 in US dollar bills.
The rainy season runs from November to April. Therefore, visiting in early January onwards can mean seeing the falls at their fullest capacity, and therefore, at their most spectacular. July to November is the dry season, and the falls can be completely dry during this time, especially on the Zambian side. However, this is the better time to visit if you’re planning on swimming in the Devil’s Pool and visiting Livingstone Island, as the water levels are far safer and it is therefore open.
Here's a table summarizing the best times to visit based on your interests:
| Interest | Best Time to Visit | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Seeing the Falls at Fullest Capacity | January to April | Rainy season; expect heavy spray |
| Swimming in Devil's Pool | July to November | Dry season; safer water levels |
| Panoramic Views | Year-round (Zimbabwe Side) | Water flows year-round |
Popular articles:
tags: #Africa
