ZAMBIA: Mosi-oa-Tunya
The spiritual significance of Victoria
Falls, the awesome cataract on the Zambesi river in Southern Africa, affects
visitors in different ways, though all agree it is one of the most memorable
places on earth. Early hunter-gatherers knew the falls as Shungu Mumi (The
Life Falls), but the most descriptive name is the Makololo Mosi-oa-Tunya
(The Smoke that Thunders). The first European to visit the falls was the
Scottish missionary-explorer David Livingstone, on his epic journey to
Zambia from Zanzibar, in 1855. Naming them in honour of Queen Victoria, he
wrote of a scene ` so lovely (they) must have been gazed upon by angels in
flight.` Located midway along the course of the Zambesi, the awesome falls
form the border, at this point, between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The largest
single curtain of falling water in the world, roughly 1.7 km across, they
drop 108 metres at the central point where the current is so powerful, that
any careless hippocampus, caught in the torrent, goes straight over the top.
During the wet season in Africa, 500 million litres of water pours over the
lip every minute, the misty spray generated by this mighty natural
phenomenon, being visible 20 km away. Mosi-oa-Tunya together with the
National Park in Zambia and the Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe,
was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1989.