Location: Zambia, Zimbabwe, b. Zambezi
Height: 120 m
Coordinates: 17 ° 55'29.0 "S 25 ° 51'16.5" E
Content:
Description
The winged angels would stop in flight to admire this spectacle, ”wrote David Livingstone, who in 1855 became the first European to see the grandiose waterfall on the Zambezi River. He named it after the Queen of England - Victoria. Victoria Falls is located on the border of two African countries - Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Victoria Falls from a bird's eye view
The wide basalt plateau, along which the Zambezi River flows, ends in a narrow cliff, dotted with cracks. From here, from a height of 108 meters, powerful, seething streams of water rush down. A rainbow is playing in the clouds of mist. The crash produced by the waterfall is heard at a distance of 40 km. It is not for nothing that the locals call the waterfall "Mosi-oa-tunya" - "Thundering smoke". Victoria is the second widest waterfall in the world (almost 2 km) after the South American Iguazu.
But Iguazu is divided by the islands into 275 separate cascades, and Victoria is a continuous stream. "Thundering Smoke" is about twice the height of Niagara Falls and twice as wide as its main part - "Horseshoe". Victoria belongs to the world championship in the "nomination" - the surface area of the falling water is 1,700 x 108 meters. During the rainy season, the waterfall flows through its "mouth" 500 million liters of water per minute.
Devil's font
From the Zimbabwe side, at the very edge of the falls, there is a 20 meter wide natural pool... It is separated from the bottomless abyss only by a narrow rocky cofferdam. It is not surprising that this place was named "The Devil's Font".
Few daredevils dare to swim here: once in the pool, a person feels how tons of water rush past him in a stormy stream, and at any moment he can become one of the “drops” of this stream, falling into the underworld.
Stones covered with algae are very slippery and there is nothing to get your hands on. But those who bathed come out of the water alive and well. The fact is that the hot tub is available to tourists only from September to December, when the water level in the Zambezi is relatively low.
Entertainment and attractions at Victoria Falls
A monument to its discoverer is erected near the Victoria Falls. Livingston's motto is inscribed on the pedestal: "Christianity, trade and civilization."
River rapids begin immediately behind the waterfall, which attracts fans of kayaking and rafting. There is a bungee jumping bridge right above the gorge, next to the rumbling water streams. The essence of the attraction is as follows: an athlete, tied to a long elastic rope, makes a jump over an abyss. The fall only lasts a few seconds, but the feeling of "free floating" is wonderful. Another way to appreciate the splendor of the waterfall from a bird's eye view is a helicopter tour.
It flies along the wide, calm surface of the Zambezi, and then makes several circles near the waterfall itself in order to observe from all sides a two-kilometer crack in the ground. Victoria Falls is located in national parks inhabited by wild African animals - elephants, giraffes, rhinos. Hippos are splashing in the river. The main pride of the Thundering Smoke Park and the favorites of visitors are two white rhinos brought here from South Africa. And black eagles soar over the hills.
