Learn about The Victoria Falls

The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya (the Smoke that Thunders) are situated on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and are roughly 1.7km wide and 108 metres high. The falls are part of two national parks, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia (66 km²) and Victoria Falls National Park (23 km²) in Zimbabwe, and are one of Southern Africa's major tourist attractions. They are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Vic Falls which have always been known as one of the '7 Natural Wonders of the World' are much higher than the Niagara Falls in North America and are possibly only rivalled in size by the Iguazu Falls in South America. Whilst Iguazu is divided into over 270 (relatively) 'small' falls and cataracts, Victoria is the largest single sheet of water in the world at 108 metres tall.

The first European to see the falls was David Livingstone on 17 November 1855, during his 1852-1856 journey from the upper Zambezi to the mouth of the river. After reaching the falls and seeing their beauty, Livingstone named them after Queen Victoria. He wrote of the falls "No one can imagine the beauty of the view from anything witnessed in England. It had never been seen before by European eyes; but scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight".

The falls are formed as the Zambezi plummets into a narrow chasm about 120 metres wide, carved by its waters along a fracture zone in the earth's crust. Numerous islets at the crest of the falls divide the water to form a series of falls. Over the centuries, the falls have been receding upstream, falling at different eras into numerous chasms which now form a series of sharply zig-zagging gorges downstream from the falls.

The falls are extremely broad at about 1708 metres across, and the height of the cascade varies from 80 metres at the right banks to 108 metres in the centre. This makes Victoria roughly twice the height of Niagara Falls, and well over twice the width of the horseshoe falls (Niagara's main portion). The falling water generates spray and mist that rises typically to a height of over 400 metres (and sometimes even twice as high), and is visible from up to 50 km away.

The number of people visiting the Zimbabwe side if the falls has historically been much higher than the number visiting the Zambia side, due to the greater developments of the visitor facilities there. However, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline in the early 2000's as civil unrest brewed surrounding the continuing rule of Robert Mugabe. In 2006, hotel occupancies on the Zimbabwe side hovered at around 30%, while the Zambian side was at near capacity.

At Journey Into Africa we offer our very popular 3 Day Victoria Falls Tours which include return flights from Johannesburg. We also offer a 5 Day Victoria Falls & Chobe National Park Safari which allows you to spend 2 nights at the Victoria Falls followed by 2 nights in Chobe National Park, Botswana. 

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