Victoria (falls). Victoria Falls The highest mountain was called Victoria Falls by the tribe.

The world-famous Victoria Falls, which locals call “Mosi-oa-Tunya” (“thundering smoke”), is one of the most picturesque and enchanting sights on the African continent!

A legendary attraction that attracts tourists from all over the world. Here the mighty Zambezi River falls down, forming a curtain of water almost 2 kilometers long. This spectacle greets tourists who come here in the spring, when the river is maximally filled with water, so that every second 5 million liters of water fall down 100 meters and 30 km from the waterfall you can see clouds of steam rising above the water

Indeed, the water spray rising from the waterfall forms a cloud that looks like smoke from afar. The waterfall owes its name to David Livingstone, the discoverer and first white man, who saw it in 1885 and decided to name it in honor of the English Queen Victoria. When local natives took him to the waterfall and showed him 546 million liters of water, which every minute crashes into a 100-meter abyss, David Livingston was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately christened it after the queen

At the waterfall, the width of the Zambezi River reaches 1.6 km. The water falls with a roar into the 106-meter opening formed in its path.

In 1857, David Livingstone wrote that in England no one could even imagine the beauty of this spectacle: “No one can imagine the beauty of the spectacle in comparison with anything seen in England. The eyes of a European had never seen such a thing before, but the angels must have admired such a beautiful sight in their flight!”

Professor Livingstone described the falls as the most beautiful sight he had seen in Africa: “Crawling fearfully to the precipice, I looked down into the great fissure that stretched from bank to bank of the broad Zambezi, and saw a stream thousands of yards wide tumbling down the hundred feet and then suddenly contracted into a space of fifteen to twenty yards... I witnessed the most wonderful spectacle in Africa!”

The falls are, by some measures, the largest waterfalls in the world, and are also among the most unusual in shape (the falls present an extraordinary spectacle - a narrow chasm into which water falls), and have perhaps the most diverse and easily observed wildlife of any section of the falls

Although Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest waterfall in the world, its status as the largest is based on its width of 1708 and height of 108 meters, forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. Numerous islands on the ridge of the waterfall divide the water flow into several branches. The dense fog and thunderous roar produced by the waterfall can be perceived from a distance of approximately 40 km

A boiling cauldron at the beginning of a winding gorge 80 km long, through which streams from the waterfall rush, crossed by a bridge 198 meters long and 94 meters high

At the top of the 120-meter Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, there is a natural mountain pool called Devil's Pond where the water is relatively calm. From September to December, when water levels are low, Devil's Pond becomes one of the world's largest swimmable bodies of water. The surrounding view will certainly make you a little nervous

Or get very nervous))

Victoria Falls is often compared to the Argentine-Brazilian Iguazu Falls, because if you do not take into account the intermittency of the Iguazu water wall, it would be the widest waterfall in the world!

There are hardly any metaphors that have not already been applied to this magnificent natural wonder of the world; it's just hard to describe in words. The falls and its immediate surroundings are so vast that it is difficult to take in their true magnificence, and for this reason they are perhaps best viewed from the air.

A few more photos Victoria Falls bird's-eye

Victoria- a waterfall on the Zambezi River in South Africa. Located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The width of the waterfall is approximately 1800 meters, the height is 120 meters.

Scottish explorer David Livingstone, who visited the waterfall in 1855, named it in honor of Queen Victoria. Among the indigenous people of this area, the waterfall was known as "Thundering Smoke"

Victoria Falls is one of the main attractions of South Africa and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is located on the border of two national parks - "Mosi-oa-Tunya" in Zambia and "Victoria Falls" in Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is the only waterfall in the world that is over 100 meters high and over a kilometer wide.

History of the waterfall

The oldest known inhabitants of the area around the waterfall were hunters and gatherers, in their languages ​​the waterfall was called Shongwe, Amanza Thunqayo, Mosi-oa-Tunua "Thundering Smoke".

It is believed that the first European to see the waterfall was David Livingston. On November 17, 1855, while traveling from the headwaters of the Zambezi to the mouth of the river (1852–1856), Livingstone reached the falls and named it after Queen Victoria. He wrote about the falls: “No one can compare the beauty with anything seen in England. This was something that European eyes had never seen before. Angels in flight must have looked at places so beautiful.”

Early descriptions of the waterfall were left by the Portuguese Serpa Pinto, the Czech Emil Holub, and the British artist Thomas Baynes, the author of the first surviving images of Victoria. However, until the railroad was built into the area in 1905, Europeans rarely visited it.

Geographical location of the waterfall

The waterfall is located approximately in the middle of the Zambezi River. Above the falls, the Zambezi flows over a flat basalt slab in a valley bordered by low and sparse sandstone hills. Along the river there are islands, the number of which increases as you approach the waterfall.

The waterfall was formed where the Zambezi falls sharply into a narrow (about 120 meters wide) chasm carved by water in a fault in the earth's crust. Numerous islands on the ridge divide the waterfall, forming channels. Over time, the waterfall retreated upstream, gnawing itself into more and more new crevices. These crevices now form a zigzag river bed with sheer walls. They are clearly visible on satellite images.

The waterfall is extremely wide, approximately 1800 meters wide, the height of the waterfall varies from 80 meters at the right bank of the waterfall to 108 meters in the center. Victoria Falls is approximately twice as tall as Niagara Falls and more than twice as wide as its main section (the Horseshoe Falls). Falling water creates spray and mist that can rise to a height of 400 meters and above. The fog created by the waterfall is visible at a distance of up to 50 kilometers.

During the rainy season, more than 500 million liters of water per minute flow through the falls, and due to the enormous force of the falling water, the spray rises hundreds of meters into the air. In 1958, during the Zambezi flood, a record level of flow was recorded - more than 770 million liters per minute.

The waterfall is divided into four parts by islands on the edge of the abyss. Next to the right bank of the river there is an inclined stream 35 meters wide, called “jumping water”, then behind the island of Boaruca (300 meters wide) there is a main waterfall about 460 meters wide. Livingston Island separates the main waterfall from the second stream (approximately 530 meters wide), and the eastern waterfall is located on the very left bank of the river.

The only way out of the crevice where the water is now falling is a rather narrow channel made by water in its wall approximately 2/3 of the distance from the western end. This channel is approximately 30 meters wide. The entire volume of water passes through it for about 120 meters, after which the river falls into a zigzag gorge. The river does not leave this gorge for about 80 km, until it leaves the basalt plateau.

At the end of the first zigzag, the river enters a deep reservoir called the “Boiling Cauldron,” about 150 m wide. In low water, the surface of the cauldron is calm, but during high water it is covered with leisurely giant whirlpools and swelling of the water surface. The walls of the gorge are more than 120 m high.

During the rainy season, up to 9,100 cubic meters of water per second passes through the waterfall. At this time, the water flows through the main waterfall in a continuous stream. During the dry season, the waterfall is reduced to a few narrow streams, there is almost no spray and fog, the flow is reduced to 350 cubic meters per second. At this time, you can explore the depths of the gorge, usually flooded with water. Between the maximum flow in April and the minimum at the end of October, the water level in the gorges changes by almost 20 meters.

At the top of the 120-meter Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe there is a natural mountain pool called Devil's Pool where the water is relatively calm. From September to December, when water levels are low, Devil's Font becomes one of the world's largest swimming pools.

Railway bridge at Victoria Falls

Below the Boiling Cauldron, at approximately a 45-degree angle to the waterfall, there is a bridge across the gorge, one of five located on the Zambezi River. The arch-shaped bridge is 250 meters long, the top of the bridge is 125 meters above the lower level of the river. Regular train services operate on the Livingstone - Bulawayo and Livingstone - Lusaka lines.

Tourism

Bungee jumping from a bridge near a waterfall. The falls were virtually unvisited by people until the railway to Bulawayo was built in 1905. After the introduction of the railway, they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule. A tourist town has grown up on the Zimbabwe side. In the late 1960s, tourist numbers declined due to guerrilla fighting in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the detention of foreign tourists under Venneta Konda's rule in independent Zambia.

Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 brought relative peace, and the 1980s saw a new wave of tourism in the region. By the late 1990s, almost 300 thousand people visited the falls annually. In the 2000s, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline due to unrest associated with Robert Mugabe's rule.

Zimbabwe and Zambia allow visas for day trips when crossing borders without prior application, however these visas are considered expensive.

Immediately after the waterfall, a section of the river begins with numerous rapids, which attracts fans of kayaking and rafting. The rapids are safe enough for beginner tourists; there are no dangerous rocks at high water flows, and after all the rapids there are sections of smooth water.

National parks

The waterfall is located in two national parks - Thundering Smoke in Zambia and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Both of them are small and have an area of ​​66 and 23 km², respectively.

The national parks are home to wild animals, including numerous herds of elephants and families of giraffes, and numerous hippos in the river. Two white rhinoceroses were brought to Thundersmoke National Park from South Africa.

On the border between two African republics - Zambia and Zimbabwe - there is a stunning wonder of the world, a delightful gift of nature - Victoria Falls. Around the waterfall there are two stunningly beautiful national parks - Victoria Falls, located in Zimbabwe, and Thundering Smoke Park in Zambia. Victoria Falls is located where the Zambezi River, which is the fourth largest river in Africa, flows into a narrow chasm formed by flows of water in a fault in the earth's crust. This is the largest waterfall on the planet, its size is amazing. Thus, the width of the waterfall reaches more than 1,700 meters, and the height of the water fall ranges from 80 meters near the shores to 120 meters in its central part. Victoria Falls is almost twice the size of the world famous Niagara Falls.

The tribes who lived in these places have long called the waterfall “Mosi-oa-Tunya”, which translates as “Thundering Smoke”; it was also called the largest curtain of falling water. Victoria Falls produces a huge amount of spray and fog that rises above it to a height of almost 400 meters. This stunning cloud of spray can be observed even at a distance of more than 50 kilometers.
The first European to see this natural wonder was traveler David Livingston in 1855. During his travels in Africa from 1853 to 1856. Livingston visited and described many places of amazing beauty, but he called the waterfall he saw the most majestic and beautiful sight, worthy of the name of Queen Victoria of England. Later, the waterfall was visited by many travelers and explorers from Europe, but only in 1905, when the railway was built, the waterfall became an attractive and popular place for both tourists from Europe and Africans themselves.
At the very edge of the abyss there are islands that divide the waterfall into four parts. Next to the right bank is the Inclined Stream, the width of which is 35 meters; it is also called “jumping water”. It is separated from the Main Falls by the island of Boaruca, which is 300 meters long. The width of the Main Falls reaches 1 km. On the edge of the Main Falls there is Livingston Island, where in ancient times sorcerers and shamans gathered to perform their magical witchcraft rituals. On the left bank there is the Eastern Waterfall, the height of which reaches 101 meters. During the rainy season, water rushes in a continuous stream, flooding islands along the way. During the dry season, only a few streams remain from the waterfall; the flow speed decreases by 26 times. During this period, the water produces almost no splashes or fog. Having completed the first zigzag, the river enters a reservoir known as the “Boiling Cauldron”. The width of the reservoir is about 150 meters. When the period of high water comes, giant whirlpools are visible on its surface. The walls of the gorge reach about 120 meters.
So that visitors can fully experience the power and strength of the waterfall, watch the furiously roaring stream of water in the depths of the gorge itself, the Bridge of Danger was built on the edge of the waterfall. Another place to view this majestic natural wonder is the Knife Edge Bridge, commissioned by Cecil Rhodes in 1900. A delightful spectacle awaits visitors who venture up the path to the top of the waterfall, into a fairy-tale forest of spray and fog. You can fully appreciate the power and gigantic size of the waterfall only from a bird's eye view - by helicopter or below - from a raft. Victoria Falls is the greatest attraction of the mainland, one of the main pearls of Africa, a stunning wonder of the world that annually attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists from all over the world.

Zimbabwe, Zambia

Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River, the fourth largest in Africa, on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. This is one of the most spectacular waterfalls. In the language of the Kololo tribe, who lived here in the 1800s, "Mosi-oa-Tunya" - "Smoke that thunders." And Victoria Falls is the name that David Livingstone, a British missionary, gave it when he discovered the falls between 1852 and 1856. Victoria Falls is a breathtaking spectacle of awesome beauty and magnificence.

The falls are, by some measures, the largest waterfalls in the world, as well as being one of the most unusual in shape, and having perhaps the most diverse and easily observed wildlife of any section of the falls.

Although Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest waterfall in the world, its status as the largest is based on its width of 1.7 km (1 mile) and height of 108 m (360 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. The maximum flow power compares well with other major waterfalls.

The waterfall was formed by the sharp fall of the Zambezi into a narrow chasm, carved by its waters in a fracture zone of the earth's crust. Numerous islands on the ridge of the waterfall divide the water flow into several branches. The dense fog and thunderous roar produced by the waterfall can be perceived from a distance of approximately 40 km. A boiling cauldron at the beginning of a winding gorge 80 km long, through which streams from the waterfall rush, is crossed by a bridge 198 meters long and 94 meters high. During a flood, the water flow rate is approximately 546 million liters of water per minute.

There are two islands on the crest of the falls that are large enough to part the curtain of water even at full flood: Boaruca Island (or Torrent Island) near the western shore, and Livingston Island near the middle. The main streams are called: Leaping Water (called by some the Devil's Stream), the Main Falls, the Rainbow Falls (the highest) and the East Stream.

The depth of the chasm, called the First Gorge, varies from 80 m (262 ft) at its western end to 108 m (360 ft) in the center. The entire volume of the Zambezi River flows through the (360 ft) wide 110 m outlet of the First Gorge for a distance of approximately 150 m (500 ft), then enters a zigzag series of gorges, defined according to the order in which the river reaches them. The water entering the Second Gorge takes a sharp turn and cuts through a deep pool called the Digester. Victoria is a complex system often called "Victoria Falls". If you look from an airplane in a direction from west to east, the system will look like this: Devil's Cataract (Devil's Falls), about. Cataract, Main Falls (Main Cascade), Fr. Livingston, Horseshoe, Rainbow Falls, Fr. Armcare ("chair") and Eastern Cataract (East Falls). The river from the abyss finds its way out in a natural “hole” 70-120 m wide, located closer to the Eastern Falls. Proran is called Boiling Pot, which means “boiling pot”. Raging, the river passes through a zigzag canyon of three branches, each 1.5 km long, and only when it breaks out onto the plain does its flow calm down.

Main gorges:

First Gorge: where the river flows into Victoria Falls
Second Gorge: (connected by the Victoria Falls Bridge), located 250 m south of the falls, 2.15 km long (270 yards south, 2350 yards long)
Third Gorge: 600 m south, 1.95 km long (650 yards south, 2100 yards long)
Fourth Gorge: 1.15 km south, 2.25 km long (1256 yards south, 2460 yards long)
Fifth Gorge: 2.55 km south, 3.2 km long (1.5 miles south, 2 miles long)
Songvi Gorge: 5.3 km south, 3.3 km long, (3.3 mi south, 2 mi long) named after the small Songvi river coming from the northeast, and greatest depth of 140 m (460 ft) at the end dry season.
Batoka Gorge: The gorge below Songvi. This gorge is approximately 120 km (75 miles) long, and carries the river through a basalt plateau to the valley that now contains Lake Kariba.

The walls of the gorges are almost vertical and approximately 120 m (400 ft) high, but the river level in them varies by 20 meters (65 ft) between the wet and dry seasons.

But it is impossible to feel the statistical data. It's worth a visit to see that the mighty cascade of the Zambezi River, rushing into the Batoka Gorge, is the widest curtain of falling water on the planet.

Many of Africa's animals and birds can be seen in the vicinity of Victoria Falls, and a range of river fish species are also well represented in the Zambezi, making it possible to combine wildlife viewing and sport fishing with sightseeing.

UNESCO

Victoria Falls is one of the main attractions of Africa - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The falls are shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and each country has a national park to protect the falls and a town serving as a tourism hub: Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park and the town of Livingstone in Zambia, and Victoria Falls National Park and the town of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

Railway bridge at Victoria Falls.

Below the Boiling Pot, almost at right angles to the waterfall, a bridge spans the gorge, one of five located on the Zambezi River. The arch-shaped bridge is 250 meters long, the top of the bridge is 125 meters above the lower level of the river. Regular train services connect the town of Victoria Falls and Livingstone to Bulawayo, with another line connecting Livingstone and Lusaka.

Formation of Victoria Falls

"Jumping Waters" - the westernmost flow of Victoria Falls formed the line of least resistance where the falls subsequently formed. The recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the shape of the gorges below the falls. A basaltic plateau through which the Upper Zambezi has carved many large cracks filled with weaker sandstone. In the area of ​​the flowing falls, the largest cracks run roughly east-west (deviating slightly northeast-southwest), with smaller north-south cracks connecting them.

Over at least 100,000 years, the falls retreated upstream through Batoka Gorge, eroding sandstone-filled cracks to form gorges. The river has fallen in different eras into different chasms, which now form a series of sharp zigzag gorges downstream from the falls.

Ignoring some of the dry sections, the Second to Fifth Gorges and Songvi Gorge represent past sections of the waterfall at a time when it fell into one long straight chasm, as it does now. Their size indicates that we are not living in the period of the most widespread "Mosi-oa-Tunya" ever. The waterfall had already begun to carve the next main gorge, falling into one side of the "Leaping Water" section of the falls.

More about Victoria Falls and its discoverer

David Livingstone, a weaver who became a doctor, a famous traveler, and explorer, discovered Victoria Falls to the world. During all the years of his stay in Africa, he allowed himself to change the local name only once and only once carved his initials and the date “1855” - the year of the great discovery - on a tree. Livingstone's heart was committed to African soil in Ilala, his body rests in Westminster Abbey in London. The great traveler left us a hand-written drawing of Victoria.

The majestic Zambezi, having absorbed water from the area of ​​​​a huge pool of 1.3 million square meters. km, approaches a basalt crack and falls into the abyss with an amazing roar. Mosi-oa-Tunya - Thundering Smoke, or Seongo (Chongue), which means “Rainbow” or “Place of the Rainbow” - this is what the locals called and still call the waterfall, to which Livingston gave the name of the English queen.

Victoria Falls is a completely extraordinary phenomenon in world nature. In the distant past, the deep tectonic forces of the Earth split the strongest rock - basalt - into blocks, and a crack 100-120 m wide from one bank to the other formed across the Zambezi channel, but to such a depth that a 40-story building could hide. If you swim upstream towards the waterfall, it will seem as if the river is going underground, because right in front of you you will see a “bank” crossing the river! The waters of the Zambezi, squeezed by a narrow gorge, boil, seethe like magma, foam, and rage with a wild roar. “The entire mass of water pouring over the edge of the waterfall turns three meters below,” as David Livingston wrote, “into the likeness of a monstrous curtain of snow driven by a blizzard. Water particles are separated from it in the form of comets with flowing tails, until this entire snow avalanche turns into myriads of small comets rushing in one direction, and each of them leaves behind its nucleus a tail of white foam."

Charles Livingston, the brother of the famous traveler, who visited Victoria Falls and previously saw Niagara, gave the palm to the miracle of Africa and noted that he did not observe the phenomenon described above at Niagara. D. Livingston assumed that it was caused by dry air. None of the later researchers after the Livingston brothers mention the microstructure of the Victoria jets. It is difficult to say what the reason for this is: either a lack of observation, or inattention to the effect. Meanwhile, it deserves the name: “The Livingston Brothers Effect.”

“Each drop of Zambezi water,” wrote David Livingston, “gives the impression of having its own individuality. It flows from the oars and slides like beads along a smooth surface, like drops of mercury on a table... Each drop is continued in the form of pure white steam. .."

The force of the impact of multi-ton masses of water on the rock from below is such that the water turns into “steam” and is knocked back out into columns of “smoke” several hundred meters high, visible from a distance of tens of kilometers. A thunderous roar can be heard at almost the same distance.

In the last century, getting to Victoria Falls was not easy. D. Livingston was accompanied by three hundred warriors of the leader Selectu. But local residents were afraid to approach Mosi-oa-Tunya itself, considering it the residence of some formidable deity. David Livingstone was accompanied directly to the waterfall by only two daredevils - Takeleng and Tuba Makoro. They swam from the upper pool to the island. Kazeruk (now Livingston Island), located at the very crest of the waterfall, and the great traveler was able to look into the boiling abyss and survey almost the entire system. Livingston enthusiastically described the rainbow over the waterfall, a rare rainbow, worthy of a “miracle of nature”: these were ring rainbows, unusual for the European eye, one inside the other, concentric circles of many rainbows. Subsequently, Livingston wrote in his diary: “The spectacle is so beautiful that it was probably admired by the flying angels.” At Victoria Falls, a rare natural phenomenon is observed - lunar rainbows. After all, a rainbow arises as a result of refraction and decomposition into component parts of the spectrum of light rays not only from the sun, but also from the moon. As on Iguazu, night rainbows over Victoria are especially magnificent during the full moon, twice a year, when the Zambezi is at its deepest.

According to the description of some travelers, Victoria’s water dust makes a special impression in the evenings, when “the fading sun throws a golden-yellow stream of rays onto the water columns, coloring them gray-yellow, and then it seems that some fantastic giant torches are standing above the water ".

The waterfall is located in two national parks - Thundering Smoke (Mosi-oa-Tunya) in Zambia and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Both national parks are small, covering an area of ​​66 and 23 square kilometers respectively.

National parks contain rich wildlife. There are significant populations of elephants, giraffes and hippos. It is also home to two white rhinoceroses, which were brought there from South Africa.

A small cemetery remains on the site of an old English settlement.

Tourism

The falls were virtually unvisited by people until the railway to Bulawayo was built in 1905. After the introduction of the railway, they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule. A tourist town has grown up on the Zimbabwe side. In the late 1960s, tourist numbers declined due to guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the detention of foreign tourists under Venneta Konda's rule in independent Zambia.

Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 brought relative peace, and the 1980s saw a new wave of tourism in the region. By the late 1990s, almost 300 thousand people visited the falls annually. In the 2000s, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline due to unrest associated with Robert Mugabe's rule.

Zimbabwe and Zambia allow visas for day trips when crossing borders without prior application, however these visas are considered expensive.

Immediately after the waterfall, a section of the river begins with numerous rapids, which attracts fans of kayaking and rafting. The rapids are safe enough for beginner tourists; there are no dangerous rocks at high water flows, and after all the rapids there are sections of smooth water.

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Remember, we have already walked through some of them, and a few days ago I showed you where and promised to tell you more about the waterfall itself. Listen and watch.

Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River, the fourth largest in Africa, on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. This is one of the most spectacular waterfalls. In the language of the Kololo tribe, who lived here in the 1800s, "Mosi-oa-Tunya" - "Smoke that thunders." And Victoria Falls is the name that David Livingstone, a British missionary, gave it when he discovered the falls between 1852 and 1856. The first European to visit the waterfall was David Livingston. For the first time, he heard about the existence of a colossal waterfall back in 1851. The next few years were spent organizing the expedition, and only in 1855 Livingston went in search of the waterfall.

To begin with, I highly recommend that you take a virtual tour and fly over the waterfall. Click on the picture below:

Descending down the Zambezi River, Livingston finally reached the waterfall. In a small canoe, he sailed to a cliff and stopped on a small island, which years later would be named Livingston Island. The first European was simply amazed by the picture that opened up to him from the edge of the cliff.

Livingston later described his first impressions of what he saw as follows: “I crawled to the cliff and looked into a huge crack. Streams of water about a mile wide broke and fell down into the gorge. It was the most wonderful thing I saw in Africa.”

Victoria Falls owes its name to Livingstone, who decided to name this natural wonder in honor of Queen Victoria. Local tribes called the waterfall Mozi-oa-Tunya, which translated meant “thundering smoke.”

In subsequent years, many Europeans visited Africa to see Victoria Falls with their own eyes. People were not afraid of multi-day exhausting hikes (the scorching sun, dangerous diseases, deadly insects - that’s what awaited travelers along the way), they were ready to do almost anything to see this miracle of nature.

Victoria Falls is a breathtaking spectacle of awesome beauty and magnificence.

The falls are, by some measures, the largest waterfalls in the world, as well as being one of the most unusual in shape, and having perhaps the most diverse and easily observed wildlife of any section of the falls.

Although Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest waterfall in the world, its status as the largest is based on its width of 1.7 km (1 mile) and height of 108 m (360 ft), forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. The maximum flow power compares well with other major waterfalls.

The waterfall was formed by the sharp fall of the Zambezi into a narrow chasm, carved by its waters in a fracture zone of the earth's crust. Numerous islands on the ridge of the waterfall divide the water flow into several branches. The dense fog and thunderous roar produced by the waterfall can be perceived from a distance of approximately 40 km. A boiling cauldron at the beginning of a winding gorge 80 km long, through which streams from the waterfall rush, is crossed by a bridge 198 meters long and 94 meters high. During a flood, the water flow rate is approximately 546 million liters of water per minute.

There are two islands on the crest of the falls that are large enough to part the curtain of water even at full flood: Boaruca Island (or Torrent Island) near the western shore, and Livingston Island near the middle. The main streams are called: Leaping Water (called by some the Devil's Stream), the Main Falls, the Rainbow Falls (the highest) and the East Stream.

The depth of the chasm, called the First Gorge, varies from 80 m (262 ft) at its western end to 108 m (360 ft) in the center. The entire volume of the Zambezi River flows through the (360 ft) wide 110 m outlet of the First Gorge for a distance of approximately 150 m (500 ft), then enters a zigzag series of gorges, defined according to the order in which the river reaches them. The water entering the Second Gorge takes a sharp turn and cuts through a deep pool called the Digester. Victoria is a complex system often called "Victoria Falls".

If you look from an airplane in a direction from west to east, the system will look like this: Devil's Cataract (Devil's Falls), about. Cataract, Main Falls (Main Cascade), Fr. Livingston, Horseshoe, Rainbow Falls, Fr. Armcare ("chair") and Eastern Cataract (East Falls). The river from the abyss finds its way out in a natural “hole” 70-120 m wide, located closer to the Eastern Falls. Proran is called Boiling Pot, which means “boiling pot”. Raging, the river passes through a zigzag canyon of three branches, each 1.5 km long, and only when it breaks out onto the plain does its flow calm down.

First Gorge: where the river flows into Victoria Falls
Second Gorge: (connected by the Victoria Falls Bridge), located 250 m south of the falls, 2.15 km long (270 yards south, 2350 yards long)
Third Gorge: 600 m south, 1.95 km long (650 yards south, 2100 yards long)
Fourth Gorge: 1.15 km south, 2.25 km long (1256 yards south, 2460 yards long)
Fifth Gorge: 2.55 km south, 3.2 km long (1.5 miles south, 2 miles long)
Songvi Gorge: 5.3 km south, 3.3 km long, (3.3 mi south, 2 mi long) named after the small Songvi river coming from the northeast, and greatest depth of 140 m (460 ft) at the end dry season.
Batoka Gorge: The gorge below Songvi. This gorge is approximately 120 km (75 miles) long, and carries the river through a basalt plateau to the valley that now contains Lake Kariba.

The walls of the gorges are almost vertical and approximately 120 m (400 ft) high, but the river level in them varies by 20 meters (65 ft) between the wet and dry seasons.

But it is impossible to feel the statistical data. It's worth a visit to see that the mighty cascade of the Zambezi River, rushing into the Batoka Gorge, is the widest curtain of falling water on the planet.

Many of Africa's animals and birds can be seen in the vicinity of Victoria Falls, and a range of river fish species are also well represented in the Zambezi, making it possible to combine wildlife viewing and sport fishing with sightseeing.

Victoria Falls is one of the main attractions of Africa - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The falls are shared between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and each country has a national park to protect the falls and a town serving as a tourism hub: Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park and the town of Livingstone in Zambia, and Victoria Falls National Park and the town of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.

Below the Boiling Pot, almost at right angles to the waterfall, a bridge spans the gorge, one of five located on the Zambezi River. The arch-shaped bridge is 250 meters long, the top of the bridge is 125 meters above the lower level of the river. Regular train services connect the town of Victoria Falls and Livingstone to Bulawayo, with another line connecting Livingstone and Lusaka.

"Jumping Waters" - the westernmost flow of Victoria Falls formed the line of least resistance where the falls subsequently formed. The recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the shape of the gorges below the falls. A basaltic plateau through which the Upper Zambezi has carved many large cracks filled with weaker sandstone. In the area of ​​the flowing falls, the largest cracks run roughly east-west (deviating slightly northeast-southwest), with smaller north-south cracks connecting them.

Over at least 100,000 years, the falls retreated upstream through Batoka Gorge, eroding sandstone-filled cracks to form gorges. The river has fallen in different eras into different chasms, which now form a series of sharp zigzag gorges downstream from the falls.

Ignoring some of the dry sections, the Second to Fifth Gorges and Songvi Gorge represent past sections of the waterfall at a time when it fell into one long straight chasm, as it does now. Their size indicates that we are not living in the period of the most widespread "Mosi-oa-Tunya" ever. The waterfall had already begun to carve the next main gorge, falling into one side of the "Leaping Water" section of the falls.

David Livingstone, a weaver who became a doctor, a famous traveler, and explorer, discovered Victoria Falls to the world. During all the years of his stay in Africa, he allowed himself to change the local name only once and only once carved his initials and the date “1855” - the year of the great discovery - on a tree. Livingstone's heart was committed to African soil in Ilala, his body rests in Westminster Abbey in London. The great traveler left us a hand-written drawing of Victoria.

The majestic Zambezi, having absorbed water from the area of ​​​​a huge pool of 1.3 million square meters. km, approaches a basalt crack and falls into the abyss with an amazing roar. Mosi-oa-Tunya - Thundering Smoke, or Seongo (Chongue), which means “Rainbow” or “Place of the Rainbow” - this is what the locals called and still call the waterfall, to which Livingston gave the name of the English queen.

Victoria Falls is a completely extraordinary phenomenon in world nature. In the distant past, the deep tectonic forces of the Earth split the strongest rock - basalt - into blocks, and a crack 100-120 m wide from one bank to the other formed across the Zambezi channel, but to such a depth that a 40-story building could hide. If you swim upstream towards the waterfall, it will seem as if the river is going underground, because right in front of you you will see a “bank” crossing the river! The waters of the Zambezi, squeezed by a narrow gorge, boil, seethe like magma, foam, and rage with a wild roar. “The entire mass of water pouring over the edge of the waterfall turns three meters below,” as David Livingston wrote, “into the likeness of a monstrous curtain of snow driven by a blizzard. Water particles are separated from it in the form of comets with flowing tails, until this entire snow avalanche turns into myriads of small comets rushing in one direction, and each of them leaves behind its nucleus a tail of white foam."

Charles Livingston, the brother of the famous traveler, who visited Victoria Falls and previously saw Niagara, gave the palm to the miracle of Africa and noted that he did not observe the phenomenon described above at Niagara. D. Livingston assumed that it was caused by dry air. None of the later researchers after the Livingston brothers mention the microstructure of the Victoria jets. It is difficult to say what the reason for this is: either a lack of observation, or inattention to the effect. Meanwhile, it deserves the name: “The Livingston Brothers Effect.”

“Each drop of Zambezi water,” wrote David Livingston, “gives the impression of having its own individuality. It flows from the oars and slides like beads along a smooth surface, like drops of mercury on a table... Each drop is continued in the form of pure white steam. .."

The force of the impact of multi-ton masses of water on the rock from below is such that the water turns into “steam” and is knocked back out into columns of “smoke” several hundred meters high, visible from a distance of tens of kilometers. A thunderous roar can be heard at almost the same distance.

In the last century, getting to Victoria Falls was not easy. D. Livingston was accompanied by three hundred warriors of the leader Selectu. But local residents were afraid to approach Mosi-oa-Tunya itself, considering it the residence of some formidable deity. David Livingstone was accompanied directly to the waterfall by only two daredevils - Takeleng and Tuba Makoro. They swam from the upper pool to the island. Kazeruk (now Livingston Island), located at the very crest of the waterfall, and the great traveler was able to look into the boiling abyss and survey almost the entire system. Livingston enthusiastically described the rainbow over the waterfall, a rare rainbow, worthy of a “miracle of nature”: these were ring rainbows, unusual for the European eye, one inside the other, concentric circles of many rainbows. Subsequently, Livingston wrote in his diary: “The spectacle is so beautiful that it was probably admired by the flying angels.” At Victoria Falls, a rare natural phenomenon is observed - lunar rainbows. After all, a rainbow arises as a result of refraction and decomposition into component parts of the spectrum of light rays not only from the sun, but also from the moon. As on Iguazu, night rainbows over Victoria are especially magnificent during the full moon, twice a year, when the Zambezi is at its deepest.

According to the description of some travelers, Victoria’s water dust makes a special impression in the evenings, when “the fading sun throws a golden-yellow stream of rays onto the water columns, coloring them gray-yellow, and then it seems that some fantastic giant torches are standing above the water ".

The waterfall is located in two national parks - Thundering Smoke (Mosi-oa-Tunya) in Zambia and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Both national parks are small, covering an area of ​​66 and 23 square kilometers respectively.

National parks contain rich wildlife. There are significant populations of elephants, giraffes and hippos. It is also home to two white rhinoceroses, which were brought there from South Africa.

A small cemetery remains on the site of an old English settlement.

The falls were virtually unvisited by people until the railway to Bulawayo was built in 1905. After the introduction of the railway, they quickly gained popularity and maintained it until the end of British colonial rule. A tourist town has grown up on the Zimbabwe side. In the late 1960s, tourist numbers declined due to guerrilla warfare in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) and the detention of foreign tourists under Venneta Konda's rule in independent Zambia.

Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 brought relative peace, and the 1980s saw a new wave of tourism in the region. By the late 1990s, almost 300 thousand people visited the falls annually. In the 2000s, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline due to unrest associated with Robert Mugabe's rule.

Zimbabwe and Zambia allow visas for day trips when crossing borders without prior application, however these visas are considered expensive.

Immediately after the waterfall, a section of the river begins with numerous rapids, which attracts fans of kayaking and rafting. The rapids are safe enough for beginner tourists; there are no dangerous rocks at high water flows, and after all the rapids there are sections of smooth water.