Victoria (waterfall). Victoria falls - the magic of thundering smoke Local tribes call it thundering smoke
Worldwide famous waterfall Victoria who locals called "Mosi-oa-Tunya" ("thundering smoke") - one of the most picturesque and enchanting spectacles on the African continent.
Victoria Falls is a legendary landmark that attracts tourists from all over the world. Here the mighty Zambezi River falls down, forming a water curtain with a length of almost 2 kilometers. Such a sight meets tourists who come here in spring, when the river is filled with water as much as possible, so that every second 5 million liters of water fall down 100 meters and 30 km from the waterfall you can see clouds of steam rising above the water.
The waterfall is just the beginning of a picturesque section of the river bed, because the river, shrouded in a cloud of spray, roars immediately into a narrow gorge, along which it zigzags for almost 70 km. These intricate twists and turns are caused by cracks in the rock widened over millennia by the force of water alone. The Zambezi River wanders over a plateau formed from layers of sandstone and basalt; where these two different rocks meet, cracks are formed.
Indeed, water spray rising from the waterfall forms a cloud that looks like smoke from a distance. The waterfall owes its name to David Livingston, the discoverer and the first white man who saw it in 1885 and decided to name it after the English Queen Victoria. When local natives took him to the waterfall and showed him 546 million liters of water, which every minute crash into a 100-meter abyss, David Livingston was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately christened him with the name of the queen.
At the waterfall, the width of the Zambezi River reaches 1.6 km. Water falls with a roar into the 106-meter gap formed on its way.
In 1857, David Livingston wrote that in England no one can even imagine the beauty of this spectacle: “No one can imagine the beauty of the spectacle compared to anything seen in England. The eyes of a European have never seen such a thing before, but the sight so beautiful must have been admired by the angels in their flight! "
Professor Livingston described the falls as the most beautiful sight he had seen in Africa: “Crawling fearfully to the edge, I looked down into a huge crack that stretched from coast to coast of the wide Zambezi, and saw a stream thousands of yards wide rushed down onto a hundred feet and then suddenly shrank into a space of fifteen to twenty yards ... I have witnessed the most wonderful sight in Africa! ”
The waterfall is extremely wide, approximately 1800 meters wide, the height of the water falling varies from 80 meters at the right bank of the waterfall to 108 meters in the center. Victoria Falls is about twice as high Niagara falls and more than twice as wide as its main part ("Horseshoe"). Falling water creates spray and fog that can rise to heights of 400 meters or more. The fog created by the waterfall is visible at a distance of up to 50 kilometers. During the rainy season, more than 500 million liters of water per minute pass through the waterfall, due to the enormous force of the falling water, the spray rises hundreds of meters into the air. In 1958, during the floods in the Zambezi, a record level of flow was noted - more than 770 million liters per minute.
Access to the waterfall From Zimbabwe, the entrance to the national park Victoria Falls paid (25 USD). The hotels are located in the town of Victoria Falls. The closest to the waterfall are Victoria Falls Hotel 5 *, The Kingdom at Victoria Falls 4 * and Ilala Lodge 5 *. From the side of Zambia, everything is much more interesting. If you stay in one of the hotels of the Sun International group (Zambezi Sun 3 * or The Royal Livingstone 5 *, then the entrance to the waterfall is free for you and unlimited directly from the territory of the hotels. For those who live in other hotels and lodges, the entrance is paid - USD 30 Plus, you have to travel every time as the rest of the hotels are located upstream of the Zambezi.
The waterfall, according to some parameters, is largest waterfall in the world, and is also one of the most unusual in shape (the waterfall is an extraordinary sight - a narrow abyss into which water falls), and having the most diverse and easily observed wildlife any part of the waterfall.
Although Victoria Falls is neither the tallest nor the widest falls in the world, its status as the largest is based on a width of 1708 and a height of 108 meters, forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. Numerous islets on the ridge of the waterfall divide the water stream into several branches. The dense fog and thunderous roar produced by the waterfall can be perceived from a distance of approximately 40 km.
A few meters ahead and you fall down with the waterfall.
Being landlocked is not at all frustrating local population of Zimbabwe, they have enough miracles in the rivers. And one of these miracles - Victoria Falls superior in height to Niagara.
This miracle was discovered by the English explorer and missionary David Livingston. At first, the waterfall only annoyed him with its noise, but later the explorer saw all the beauty and power of the waterfall. And sheer delight resulted in a flattering name in honor of Queen Victoria.
The indigenous people called him “ thundering smoke»Because of the noisy stream of water rushing down from a height of 108 km. Water dust, rising to a height of 400 meters, gives rise to huge extraordinary rainbows that you will not find anywhere else.
Organize observation decks very difficult because Zambezi river falls into a narrow crevice, to which it is not possible to approach. But through this gorge passes Railway opening the inner world of a mighty waterfall.
During the rainy season, up to 500 million liters of water falls every minute, and during a drought, only a few streams. The Zambezi, from a deep, calm river, can turn into an impassable and dangerous river. This should not be forgotten by tourists who decide to raft down the river. The waterfall is reliably protected from all sides by nature reserves and is under the strict supervision of UNESCO.
The world famous Victoria Falls, which locals call “Mosi-oa-Tunya” (“Thundering Smoke”), is one of the most picturesque and enchanting spectacles on the African continent!
A legendary landmark that attracts tourists from all over the world. Here the mighty Zambezi River falls down, forming a water curtain with a length of almost 2 kilometers. Such a sight meets tourists who come here in spring, when the river is filled with water as much as possible, so that every second 5 million liters of water fall down 100 meters and 30 km from the waterfall you can see clouds of steam rising above the water
Indeed, water spray rising from the waterfall forms a cloud that looks like smoke from a distance. The waterfall owes its name to David Livingston, the discoverer and the first white man who saw it in 1885 and decided to name it after the English Queen Victoria. When the local natives took him to the waterfall and showed him 546 million liters of water, which every minute crash into a 100-meter abyss, David Livingston was so shocked by what he saw that he immediately christened him with the name of the Queen
At the waterfall, the width of the Zambezi River reaches 1.6 km. Water falls with a roar into the 106-meter gap formed on its way.
In 1857, David Livingston wrote that in England no one can even imagine the beauty of this spectacle: “No one can imagine the beauty of the spectacle compared to anything seen in England. The eyes of a European have never seen such a thing before, but the sight so beautiful must have been admired by the angels in their flight! "
Professor Livingston described the falls as the most beautiful sight he had seen in Africa: “Crawling fearfully to the edge, I looked down into a huge crack that stretched from coast to coast of the wide Zambezi, and saw a stream thousands of yards wide rushed down onto a hundred feet and then suddenly shrank into a space of fifteen to twenty yards ... I have witnessed the most wonderful sight in Africa! ”
The waterfall, according to some parameters, is the largest waterfall in the world, and is also one of the most unusual in shape (the waterfall is an extraordinary sight - a narrow abyss into which water falls), and has the most diverse and easily observed wildlife of any part of the waterfall
Though Victoria Falls It is neither the tallest nor the widest waterfall in the world, its status as the largest is based on a width of 1708 and a height of 108 meters, forming the largest sheet of falling water in the world. Numerous islets on the ridge of the waterfall divide the water stream into several branches. The dense fog and thunderous roar produced by the waterfall can be perceived from a distance of approximately 40 km
A boiling cauldron at the beginning of a winding gorge 80 km long, through which streams rush from the waterfall, is crossed by a bridge 198 meters long and 94 meters high
At the top of the 120-meter Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, there is a natural mountain body called Devil's Pond, where the water is relatively calm. From September to December, when the water level is low, Devil's Pond becomes one of the largest bodies of water in the world to swim in. The surrounding view will certainly make you a little nervous.
Or get very nervous))
Victoria Falls is often compared to the Argentine-Brazilian Iguazu Falls, because if you do not take into account the discontinuity of the Iguazu water wall, it would be the widest waterfall in the world!
There are hardly any metaphors that have not yet been applied to this magnificent natural wonder of the world; it's just hard to describe in words. The falls and its immediate surroundings are so vast that it is difficult to capture their true splendor with a glance, and for this reason, they are perhaps best viewed from the air.
A few more photos Victoria Falls bird's-eye
One of the largest waterfalls in the world. It is located in South Africa on the river Zambezi... Water falls from a 120-meter-high ledge into a deep and rather narrow basalt canyon, saturating the environment with giant columns of water dust that can be seen from a distance of 40 kilometers.
Victoria is the main attraction South Africa, located at the junction of Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe) and Thundering Smoke (Zambia) national parks, also included in World heritage UNESCO.
It attracts tourists from all over the world and literally bewitches them with its uniqueness. The crash of the waterfall is heard so far that the hunters from the tribe Batoka nicknamed him Mosi-oa-Tunya, which means “thundering smoke”. Matabele- a tribe living on the other side of the river - also gave it a poetic name - "place of the rainbow" (Chongue). sparkles here with all the colors and it looks very pretty!
Above the gorge, ring rainbows are almost constantly dazzling, and during the full moon you can sometimes see an amazing phenomenon here - moon rainbow, which can be found only in some places in the world, for example, at Niagara Falls.
Victoria is surrounded on three sides by wooded cliffs about 100 meters high. The forest growing along the banks is called Dozhdev and the silvery refreshing rain does fall in these places all year round, the whole day, but it falls from the thundering gorge, and not from the sky.
If you swim down the river to the waterfall, it will seem that a third bank suddenly appears across the stream. This is how the missionary saw Victoria David Livingston- the discoverer of Victoria. Livingston was so struck by the beauty that he immediately named it in honor of the Queen of Britain. A monument to this great explorer was erected on the shore of the waterfall.
Many eyewitnesses say that the most striking sight at the waterfall is the columns of "thundering smoke" that look like huge torches above the abyss, in harmony with the golden rays of the sunset.
From a geological point of view, Victoria Falls is a crack formed due to the occurrence of rocks of different hardness in the neighborhood - basalts and sandstones. This waterfall is over 1,700 meters wide and about 128 meters high. The islets divide Victoria into five streams: Main Falls, Devil's Falls, Horseshoe, Eastern and Rainbow Falls.
