THE VICTORIA FALLS Located on the Zambezi River, about 1 000 km from its source, the Victoria Falls are Zimbabwe's best-known geographical feature and tourist attraction in addition to being a World Heritage Site. With a width of 1 708 m and an average depth of about 100 m, they form the biggest single curtain of falling water in the world. The flow of water over the Falls varies according to the time of year and the rainfall in the Zambezi's upper catchment areas in western Zambia and Angola. In November and December it may be 20 000 cu m per minute but towards the end of a normal rainy season it reaches 500 000 cu m or more per minute. During the record-breaking floods of 1958 it reached a peak of 700 000 cu m per minute. The Falls take the form of a sheer-sided chasm, as little as 60 m wide in places, running almost at a right angle across the river width. The southern lip of the gorge creates a natural viewing platform from which the full extent of the Falls can be seen at close quarters. |
