Victoria Falls – The Smoke that Thunders

posted in: Africa  |  posted by: Dave Emery on June 20, 2009  |  No Comments

Looking at it from the Northern side, the Victoria Falls seem like a curled cloud on the sky of Africa, shouting at its own immensity. “The Smoke that Thunders” is the name that a local tribe gave to this natural wonder.
victoria_falls1

Victoria Falls is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. The clouds of water rise over 500 meters high and one can see it from a distance of over 40 kilometers. Although the waterfall discovered by David Livingstone, a Scottish explorer is neither the highest waterfall in the world, nor the widest, it surely is the largest. Victoria Falls have a width of 1,708 meters and a height of 108 meters, and this surely is the largest area with falling waters in the world.

victoria_falls2

Politically, the waterfall is situated right on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border and geographically, on the Zambezi River. No one can tell that the slow flow of this 1.6 kilometers wide river can end up into a waterfall that huge. The flow radically changes now. From the average width, in the waterfall section, the rivers gets to be only 60 meters wide, therefore one can enjoy the most amazing water flow show here.

victoria_falls3a

Although the water volume varies, due to the season, rain can cause the river to flow with more than 550 million liters of water every minute, in the waterfall. On Danger Point, a sightseeing spot across the abyss, the cascade can provoke such powerful winds, that numerous accessories of the tourists are blown away.

victoria_falls4a

The sunbeams create shiny rainbows all over the cascade and in the nearby regions, the vegetation remains green all year long, although in some months of the year, the tropical savanna dries. This humid climate produces a unique tropical forest, that along with the waterfall form a year-round green spot in the African landscape, a real natural wonder.

victoria_falls5avictoria_falls6aImage credit: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Popularity: 1% [?]




Leave a Reply