The
Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River is one of the seven wonders of the natural
world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989. The waters
of the Zambezi plunge 103 metres into a chasm which is 1.71km in length.
The falling water makes a deafening roar at the height of the annual river
flood between February to May, throwing up clouds of spray and drenching the
opposite cliff in rain. Flow rates of 500million litres per minute when in full
flood have been recorded.
The
falls are aptly known as Mosi-O-Tunya, “The Smoke that Thunders”, a name which
was given to them by the Kololo people, a South African tribe that had
colonized the Livingstone area in the 1830s. The local Toka-Leya people called
them Shungu-na-Mutitima which has the same meaning.
