Africa Attractions

One of Africa’s major tourist attractions, Victoria Falls, South Africa, is probably the best known globally for its sheer power and beauty, this natural wonder is truly an awesome and inspiring sight. In comparison to America’s Niagara Falls, the Victoria Falls is almost twice the height and more than twice the width of its Horseshoe Falls and it’s rivaled only by South America’s Iguazu Falls.

Victoria Falls towers some 108 meters (360ft) in height and 1.7 kilometres in width, and yet it is neither the highest or the widest waterfall in the world, it is however the largest sheet of falling water in the world and with its maximum flow-rate at around 3000 m³/s in compares to that of other major waterfalls.

A unique benefit to onlookers is that Victoria Falls can be viewed almost entirely face-on due to its unusual form of the falls and can be viewed in close proximity, as little as 60 metres. Feed by the Zambezi River, the Victoria Falls drops into deep, narrow chasms and is connected to a long series of gorges which allows onlookers to approach the falls very closely.

The falls are shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe and both countries have declared areas surrounding the falls as national parks to protect the delicate eco-system that thrives here, many of Africa’s animals and birds can be seen in the immediate vicinity of the falls.

The name Victoria Falls came from Africa’s pre-colonial history, a name used by the local people however is Mosi-oa-Tunya.

The Zambezi basin above the falls experience a rainy season from late November to early April and is in dry season the rest of the year and experiences flood conditions from February to May, peaking in April. During flood conditions the spray will generally rise up to a height of over 400 metres (1,300 ft), but has been known to go twice as high, as a result of this the spray can be visible up to 50 km away.

Located at the top of the Victoria Falls is a well-known naturally formed pool, called the Devil’s Swimming Pool, located near the edge of the falls and accessible via Livingstone Island. This natural rock pool can be accessed only when the river flow is at an acceptable rate between the months of September and December and allows people to swim within a metre of the edge due to a large natural rock wall that stops their progress despite the current. By the end of the 1990’s over 300,000 people were visiting Victoria Falls annually.