Victoria Falls

빅토리아 폭포

Victoria Falls is a giant waterfall on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe in southern Africa. The falls are about 1,708 metres wide and up to 108 metres high, which makes them the world's largest sheet of falling water. The region around them is rich in plant and animal life.

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At a glance

Country: Zambia
Location: Zambia–Zimbabwe border
Height: 108 m
Type: Waterfall

Quick answers

Where is Victoria Falls?

Victoria Falls is in Zambia–Zimbabwe border.

How tall is Victoria Falls?

Victoria Falls is about 108 m tall.

The Zambezi plunges over a 1.7 km-wide cliff; locals call it "the smoke that thunders".

The local Lozi name is Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means "the smoke that thunders", because the spray rises high into the air and can be seen from up to 50 kilometres away. The Scottish explorer David Livingstone, the first European known to have seen the falls, named them after Queen Victoria in 1855. UNESCO recognises both names.

How do the falls work?

Upstream the Zambezi flows slowly over a flat sheet of basalt. Then the whole river drops into a narrow crack in the rock, called the First Gorge, which is 80 to 108 metres deep. The water leaves through a single 110-metre gap, so the entire river squeezes through a tight space.

Islands at the top, such as Livingstone Island, divide the curtain of water into parts: the Devil's Cataract, the Main Falls, the Rainbow Falls and the Eastern Cataract.

Wet season and dry season

The river floods from February to May and peaks in April. The spray can then rise over 400 metres, and at full moon a "moonbow" can appear. In flood the bottom of the falls is hidden in mist.

From September to January up to half of the rock face can be dry. The flow in November is only about a tenth of the April figure. In 2019 unusually low rain brought the lowest flow in a century.

Zigzag gorges

After the First Gorge the river zigzags through a series of narrow gorges. In the Second Gorge it makes a sharp right turn and carves a deep pool called the Boiling Pot, about 150 metres across. The Victoria Falls Bridge spans this gorge.

Both countries have national parks and tourist towns beside the falls. Research from the late 2010s suggests that changes in rainfall caused by climate change are likely to alter how the falls look.

Fun facts

The falls are about 1,708 m wide.
Older names for the place, Seongo and Chongwe, mean "the place of the rainbow".
David Livingstone is the first European known to have seen the falls, on 16 November 1855.
Only one narrow 110-metre gap lets the whole river escape the First Gorge.
The spray can rise over 400 metres and be seen from up to 50 kilometres away.