On the 17th November 1855 English explorer David Livingstone became the first European ever to see The Victoria Falls or “Mosi-oa-Tunya” as it was known by the local Makololo people, which loosely translated means “The Smoke that Thunders”.

The world famous Victoria Falls is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which begins at the edge of the mighty Zambezi River where its entire width (of about 1.7km) drops over a 108m vertical wall into a narrow gorge. The volume of water over the Falls typically ranges between 300-3000 cubic meters per second (annual mean volume is said to be just over 1 million liters per second) and the mist generated by the falls can reportedly be seen and felt from several kilometers away. Livingstone returned to the area in 1860 to make a detailed study of the falls with another explorer by the name of John Kirk, but it wasn’t until around 1900 that European settlement started to gain momentum in response to Cecil John Rhodes plans to exploit the natural resources north of the Zambezi such as the huge timber forests, the ivory and animal skins, as well as the mineral rights.

Until 1905, the Zambezi River was crossed above the falls at the Old Drift by dugout canoe or a barge towed across with a steel cable. Rhodes' vision was for a railway line to be built that would stretch from Cape to Cairo and hence he initiated plans for the first bridge across the Zambezi to be built. He insisted that it be built where the spray from the falls would be able to fall on passing trains. The Victoria Falls Bridge was finished in 1905 only after Rhodes death, but the railway offered accessible travel to whites from as far south as Cape Town to as far north as the Belgian Congo.

The river marks the political boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and as a result of increasing tourism, both countries have erected numerous walkways and viewpoints looking across the misty chasm directly opposite the falls. The falls can also be seen from the Livingstone Memorial Bridge, which spans the river between the border posts of both countries. The Falls became an increasingly popular attraction during British colonial rule of Northern and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), with the town of Victoria Falls becoming the main tourist centre. By the late 1990s, almost 300,000 people were visiting the falls annually, and this was expected to more than triple to over a million in the next decade.

In 1964, Northern Rhodesia became the independent state of Zambia. The following year, Rhodesia made a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) this was not recognized by the outside world, which led to war in Rhodesia on the south side of the Zambezi. Due to this conflict, in 1966 Zambia restricted or stopped all border crossings and did not reopen the border completely until 1980 when Zimbabwe gained its independence. This brought about comparative peace.

The 1980s saw renewed levels of tourism and the region developed rapidly especially as a centre for tourism and adventure sports. Activities that gained popularity in the area include white water rafting in the gorges, bungee jumping from the bridge, elephant back rides, tiger fishing, horse riding, canoeing, and helicopter flights over the falls.

Historically the number of visitors to the Zimbabwean side of the falls has been much higher than the number visiting the Zambia side. This is 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 Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy began to increase political tensions in the country. Zambia’s tourist industry capitalized as a result of the situation with hotel occupancy levels reaching averages of almost 100%.

‘The Smoke that Thunders’, rainy season, 1972 . . . and dry season, September 2003

Size and flow rate of Victoria Falls with Niagara and Iguazu for comparison

Parameters	Victoria Falls		Niagara Falls		Iguazu Falls
Height in meters and feet	108m	360 ft	51 m	167 ft	64–82 m	210–269 ft
Width in meters and feet	1,708 m	5,604 ft	1,203 m	3,947 ft	2,700 m	8,858 ft
Flow rate units (vol/s):	m³/s	cu ft/s	m³/s	cu ft/s	m³/s	cu ft/s
Mean annual flow rate	1,088	38,430	2,407	85,000	1,746	61,600
Mean monthly flow — max:	3,000	105,944
Mean monthly flow — min:	300	10,594
Highest recorded flow	12,800	452,000	6,800	240,000	12,600	444,965