A short history of the Victoria Falls in Africa

Have you heard of Smoke That Thunders or Boiling Water? These are translations of the local names for what we know as Victoria Falls, located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Though the Africans had known of the falls’ existence for a very long time, it shot into prominence after its discovery by the Scottish explorer David Livingstone in 1855. He also named the falls after Queen Victoria of England.

Located on the Zambezi River, the falls were formed when a fracture zone in the basalt plateau along the river’s course caused the waters to plunge vertically into a chasm known as the First Gorge. This cleft is 260ft deep at the western end and 354ft in the centre. The falls are split into Devil’s Cataract, Main Falls, Rainbow Falls, and the Eastern Cataract. The Rainbow Falls occur at the highest point. Boaruka Island, situated at the western end of the falls, separates the Devil’s Cataract from the rest of the falls. The island is situated in the Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe.

Also on the edge of the falls, but on the Zambian side of the border, is Livingstone Island. This is the point from which David Livingstone caught sight of the falls. The island is famous for two rock pools — Devil’s Pool and Angel’s Pool — where tourists are allowed to swim under supervision.

Archaeologists say that the basalt plateau over which the Zambezi flows was formed during the Jurassic period (around 200 million years ago). Early Stone Age and Early Iron Age artefacts have been recovered from around the falls.

The falls were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.

Fun Facts

Victoria Falls has the world’s largest sheet of falling water.

The mist from the falling water can be seen from around 30km away, as it rises to a height of around 1,300 ft and even double that at times.

On full moon nights, a moonbow can be seen reflecting off the curtain of water.

Two maps from the 1700s — drawn by French geographers Nicolas de Fer in 1715 and Jacques Nicolas Bellin in 1750 — mark the falls in their correct position. More than 100 years later, Livingstone followed the trade routes marked in de Fer’s map.