 Victoria Falls, by Michael W. Carroll  Victoria Falls from the far side of the gorge Victoria Falls is one of the world's most spectacular waterfalls. The falls are situated on the Zambezi River, which at this point forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The falls are extremely broad at roughly a mile wide, while their height is considerable at 128 m (420 ft). They form a particularly remarkable spectacle because of their peculiar geography - the water falls into a narrow slot-like chasm, and so one can view the falls face-on (the situation is well illustrated by this photo (http://bytchinny.typepad.com/photos/zimbabwe/114_1442.html)).
David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer, visited the falls in 1855 and named them for Queen Victoria, though they were known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the "smoke that thunders." The falls are part of two national parks, Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia and Victoria Falls National Park in Zimbabwe, and are today one of Southern Africa's major tourist draws.
The falls are formed as the Zambezi plummets into a narrow chasm (c. 400 ft./120 m wide) carved by its waters along a fracture zone in the earth's crust. Numerous islets at the crest of the falls divide the water to form a series of falls. The thick mist and loud roar produced there are perceptible from a distance of about 25 mi (40 km). Over the centuries, the falls have been receding upstream, falling at different eras into numerous chasms which now form a series of sharply zig-zagging gorges downstream from the falls.
The Boiling Pot, the beginning of the series of gorges (c. 50 mi/80 km long) through which the river flows below the falls, is spanned by a 650 ft. (198 m) long bridge 310 ft. (94 m) above the river, one of only four bridges over the whole course of the Zambezi. The bridge is a very popular location for bungee jumping.
In the wet season, the river discharges as much as 9,100 m³/s (320,000 cubic feet per second) of water. The dry season may see the falls diminish to just a few narrow cascades, with the spray and mist almost absent.
Victoria Falls is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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