Victoria Falls (Lozi: Mosi-oa-Tunya, "Thundering Smoke/Smoke that Rises"; Tonga: Shungu Namutitima, "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River, located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the world's largest waterfalls, with a width of 1,708 m (5,604 ft). The region around it has a high degree of biodiversity in both plants and animals.
Archaeology and oral history describe a long record of African knowledge of the site. Although known to some European geographers before the 19th century, Scottish missionary David Livingstone was introduced to the falls in 1855, naming them Victoria Falls after Queen Victoria. Since the mid-20th century, the site has been a major tourist destination. Zambia and Zimbabwe both have national parks and tourism infrastructure at the site. Research in the late 2010s found that precipitation variability due to climate change is likely to alter the character of the falls.
Name origins
David Livingstone was the first European recorded to have viewed the falls on 16 November 1855, from an island now known as Livingstone Island, one of two land masses in the middle of the river, immediately upstream from the falls near the Zambian shore. Livingstone named his sighting in honour of Queen Victoria, but the Lozi language name, Mosi-oa-Tunya—"The Smoke That Thunders"—continues in common usage. The World Heritage List officially recognises both names. Livingstone also cited an older name, Seongo or Chongwe, which means "The Place of the Rainbow", as a result of the constant spray.
The nearby national park in Zambia is named Mosi-oa-Tunya, whereas the national park and town on the Zimbabwean shore are both named Victoria Falls.
Size
Victoria Falls is classified as the largest based on its combined width of and height of , resulting in the world's largest sheet of falling water.
For a considerable distance upstream from the falls, the Zambezi flows over a level sheet of basalt in a shallow valley, bounded by low and distant sandstone hills. The river's course is dotted with numerous tree-covered islands, which increase in number as the river approaches the falls. There is a flat plateau extending in all directions.
The falls were formed where the full width of the river plummets in a single vertical drop into a transverse chasm wide, along a fracture zone in the basalt plateau. The depth of the chasm, called the First Gorge, varies from at its western end to in the centre. The only outlet from the First Gorge is a gap about two-thirds of the way across the width of the falls from the western end. The whole volume of the river pours into the Victoria Falls gorges from this narrow cleft.
Two islands are situated on the crest of the falls: Boaruka Island (or Cataract Island) near the western bank, and Livingstone Island near the middle. At less than full flood, additional islets divide the curtain of water into separate parallel streams. The main streams are named, in order from Zimbabwe (west) to Zambia (east): the Devil's Cataract The spray from the falls typically rises to a height of over , sometimes up to twice as high, and is visible from up to away. At full moon, a "moonbow" can also be seen. During the flood season, however, the foot and the face of the waterfall can not be seen.
When the dry season takes effect, the islets on the crest become wider and more numerous. From September to January, up to half of the rocky face of the falls may become dry, allowing the bottom of the First Gorge to be seen along most of its length. At this time, it becomes possible (though not necessarily safe) to walk across some stretches of the river at the crest. It is also possible to walk to the bottom of the First Gorge at the Zimbabwean side. The minimum flow, which occurs in November, is around a tenth of the April figure; this variation in flow is greater than that of other major falls and causes the Victoria Falls' annual average flow rate to be lower than might be expected based on the maximum flow.thumb|center|800px|Panorama of the Victoria Falls
Gorges
thumb|First Gorge, from the Zambian side
The entire volume of the Zambezi River pours through the First Gorge's wide exit for a distance of about , then enters a zigzagging series of gorges designated by the order in which the river reaches them. Water entering the Second Gorge makes a sharp right turn and has carved out a deep pool there called the Boiling Pot. Reached via a steep footpath from the Zambian side, it is about across. Its surface is smooth at low water, but at high water is marked by enormous, slow swirls and heavy turbulence. A general uplift of the land between Zimbabwe and the Kalahari Desert about 2 million years ago blocked this drainage route, and a large paleolake known as Lake Makgadikgadi formed between the Kalahari and the Batoka Basaltic Plateau of Zimbabwe and Zambia. This lake was originally endorheic and had no natural outlet. Under wetter climate conditions about 20,000 years BP, it eventually overflowed and began to drain to the east, cutting the Batoka Gorge through the basalt.
The recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the overall form of the Batoka Gorge, with its six individual gorges and eight past positions of the falls. The east–west oriented gorges imply structural control with alignment along joints of shatter zones, or faults with of vertical displacement as is the case of the second and fifth gorges. Headward erosion along these structural lines of weakness would establish a new fall line and abandonment of the earlier line. North-south oriented joints control the south flowing sections of the river. One of these is the "Boiling Pot", which links the First Gorge with the Second Gorge.
Early Iron Age pottery was excavated at a vlei site near Masuma Dam in the early 1960s. Evidence for iron smelting was also found in a settlement dating to the late first millennium AD.
The southern Tonga people known as the Batoka/Tokalea called the falls Shungu na mutitima. The Matabele, later arrivals, named them aManz' aThunqayo, and the Batswana and Makololo (whose language is used by the Lozi people) call them Mosi-o-Tunya. All these names mean essentially "the smoke that thunders".
A map drawn by Nicolas de Fer in 1715 shows the fall clearly marked in the correct position. It also shows dotted lines denoting trade routes that David Livingstone followed 140 years later. A map from c. 1750 drawn by Jacques Nicolas Bellin for Abbé Antoine François Prevost d'Exiles marks the falls as "cataractes" and notes a settlement to the north of the Zambezi as being friendly with the Portuguese at the time.
19th century
In November 1855, David Livingstone was the first European who saw the falls, when he traveled from the upper Zambezi to the mouth of the river between 1852 and 1856. The falls were well known to local tribes, and Voortrekker hunters may have known of them, as may the Arabs under a name equivalent to "the end of the world". Europeans were sceptical of their reports, perhaps thinking that the lack of mountains and valleys on the plateau made a large fall unlikely.
Livingstone had been told about the falls before he reached them from upriver and was paddled across to the Livingstone Island in Zambia. and British artist Thomas Baines, who executed some of the earliest paintings of the falls. Until the area was opened up by the building of the railway in 1905, though, the falls were seldom visited by other Europeans. Some writers believe that the Portuguese priest Gonçalo da Silveira was the first European to catch sight of the falls back in the sixteenth century.
History since 1900
thumb|Victoria Falls' Second Gorge (with bridge) and Third Gorge (right). The peninsular cliffs are in Zambia, the outer cliffs in Zimbabwe. The cliffs are composed of [[Batoka Formation basalt flows. The breaks in slope with vegetation are brecciated amygdaloidal basalt zones separating six successive and massive lava flows with distinct vertical jointing. Rhodes' vision of a Cape-Cairo railway drove plans for the first bridge across the Zambezi. He insisted it be built where the spray from the falls would fall on passing trains, so the site at the Second Gorge was chosen. (See the main article Victoria Falls Bridge for details.
Tourism in recent years
thumb|The naturally formed "Devil's Pool", where tourists swim despite a risk of plunging over the edge
By the end of the 1990s, almost 400,000 people were visiting the falls annually, and this was expected to rise to over a million in the next decade. Unlike the game parks, Victoria Falls has more Zimbabwean and Zambian visitors than international tourists; the attraction is accessible by bus and train, and is therefore comparatively inexpensive to reach.
The numbers of visitors to the Zimbabwean side of the falls has historically been much higher than the number visiting the Zambian side, due to the greater development of the visitor facilities there. However, the number of tourists visiting Zimbabwe began to decline in the early 2000s as political tensions between supporters and opponents of president Robert Mugabe increased. In 2006, hotel occupancy on the Zimbabwean side hovered at around 30%, while the Zambian side was near capacity, with rates in top hotels reaching US$630 per night. The rapid development has prompted the United Nations to consider revoking the falls' status as a World Heritage Site. In addition, problems of waste disposal and a lack of effective management of the falls' environment are a concern. When the river flow is at a certain level, usually between September and December, a rock barrier forms an eddy with minimal current, allowing adventurous swimmers to splash around in relative safety in front of the point where the water cascades over the falls.
Natural environment
thumb|Two [[white rhinos at Mosi-oa-Tunya national park in May 2005. They are not indigenous, but were imported from South Africa.]]
National parks
The two national parks at the falls are relatively small– Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is and Victoria Falls National Park is . However, next to the latter on the southern bank is the Zambezi National Park, extending west along the river.
On Botswana’s side of the border, Chobe National Park is a short distance to travel to and is a popular location for a day trip for many tourists visiting Victoria Falls for extended stays. It offers more diverse flora and fauna than Hwange National Park.
In 2004 a separate group of police called the Tourism Police was started. They are commonly seen around the main tourist areas, and can be identified by their uniforms with yellow reflective bibs.
Vegetation
Riverine forest with palm trees lines the banks and islands above the falls. The most notable aspect of the area's vegetation though is the rainforest nurtured by the spray from the falls, containing plants rare for the area such as pod mahogany, ebony, ivory palm, wild date palm, batoko plum and creepers and lianas. Rising temperatures make the region hotter and drier. This is particularly pronounced in drought years, which are becoming more frequent and intense. Such occurrences have affected the aesthetics of the waterfalls, and there are fears that Victoria Falls might join other World Heritage sites categorised as last-chance destinations.<!-- Use reliable sources to address the discussion. Commercial sources will have a conflict of interest in keeping the presumed unusual droughts hidden/minimised. -->
Statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:1em 0 1em 1em;"
|- align="centre" style="background:white"
| colspan="7" | 262px 221px<br />"The Smoke that Thunders", rainy season, 1972 ... and dry season, September 2003
|- align="centre" style="background:white"
| colspan="7" | Size and flow rate of Victoria Falls with Niagara and Iguazu for comparison
|- align="left"
! Parameters
! colspan="2" | Victoria Falls
! colspan="2" | Niagara Falls
! colspan="2" | Iguazu Falls
|- align="right"
| align="left" | Height in meters and feet: