Victoria Falls
by Krysta Cardinale“Africa’s Natural Wonder”
The Victoria Falls is located on the Zambezi River in Africa, between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is considered one of the world’s most magnificent waterfalls. The falls were named by David Livingston in 1855. He was a Scottish explorer and renamed this natural wonder after Queen Victoria. These falls are known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya. Victoria Falls, Africa is the world’s largest single waterfall in the world. It is about 420 feet high (128 meters), and one mile wide (1.7 kilometers).
Information on the Victoria Falls in Africa reveals that it lies about halfway down the Zambezi River. Before the falls, the Zambezi River flows through a valley of sandstone hills with a number of small tree covered islands. The waterfall forms where the river plummets about 420 feet down into a narrow chasm about only 400 feet wide. Over the years, the falls has been withdrawing upstream and thus falling into numerous chasms. This has developed into a pattern of zigzagged gorges downstream. The information on the Victoria Falls in Africa describes its height as twice that of the Niagara Falls in New York, and it as well over twice the width.
Victoria Falls, Africa produces a spray and mist from 1,000 to 2,000 feet. It can be seen from thirty miles away, and during a full moon, a “moon-bow” is visible replacing the daytime rainbow. During the wet season, the Zambezi River flows about 320,000 feet cubed per second of water. There is no break in water at the falls, or in other words the water flows over it in one single sheet. On the other hand, during the dry season the flow of water decreases to about 12,500 feet cubed per second.
Tourist Attraction
At almost a complete ninety degree angle from the waterfall, there is a bridge that was built in 1905. This bridge crosses over one of the gorges of Zambezi River after the falls. This bridge was part of a railway plan and is 250 meters across, and 125 meters above the height of the water. Today there are regular railway services that connect the nearby towns of Livingston and Victoria Falls with Bulawayo with another line from Livingston to Lusaka.
Before this railway bridge was built there were very few tourists. From 1905 to the mid 1960’s the popularity of the waterfall increased tremendously as well as the tourist town of Victoria Falls. However, from the late 1960’s and on, the number of tourists and visitors greatly declined. This was due to the guerilla warfare in nearby Zimbabwe. In 1980, Zimbabwean independence brought peace to the region. This encouraged a new wave of tourism, and the area also developed into a centre for extreme sports. By the year 2000, there were about 300,000 tourists that visited the area per year and the number is supposed to surge to one million by 2010. This waterfall is also part of two national parks, the Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe and the Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia. Both of these parks are relatively small, the first covering about 23 squared kilometers and the other 66 squared kilometers. They are home to a large amount of wildlife including hippos, elephants, and giraffes.
