빅토리아 폭포(Victoria Falls) 안내

빅토리아 폭포(Victoria Falls) 안내. 짐바브웨(Zimbabwe)

victoriafallstourism.org

 

Recent History

The people living in the area of Victoria Falls were not isolated from the outside world as is shown by th discovery of glass beads dating back to the 17 century that have been found at several sites in the area. The waterfall Mosi-Oa-Tunya appeared, marked on maps, in the early 1850's but it was not until the visit of the Scottish Missionary Dr. David Livingstone, on the 16th of November, 1855, that their existence became widely publicised in the outside world.

 

After Livingstone there was a steady trickle of visitors but it was not until the arrival of the railroad in 1904 that this part of the world became easily acceptible to visitors. The Victoria Falls Bridge was constructed in just 14 months by the men of the Cleveland Bridge Co. of Darlington, County Durham and was opened on the 12th of September 1905 by Professor Darwin, son of the famous scientist Charles Darwin.

 

Later, Imperial Airways would lffer the Solent Flying Boat service that would transport visitors in comfort from South-ampton to South Africa in seven days stopping in Augusta, Cairo, Luxor, Khartoum, Port Bell and Victoria Falls before landing outside of Johannesberg on the Vaal Dam.

 

Dr. David Livingstone

On Livingstone's visit to the Falls, he was in the middle of an extraordinary journey across Africa that would catapult him to fame back in Europe and make him one of the most influential explorers of this generation. He was born into poverty in a Glasgow slum in 1813, but after this journey, he would go on to an extraordinary career spanning over 25 years in Africa and traversing over 45,000 km (28,000m) of uncharted territory. Livingstone dedicated the last five years of his life to shutting down the slave trade in East Africa. This was where his famous meeting with Henry Morton Stanley took place, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika, wher Stanley greeted him, with the now famous line, "Dr. Livingstone I presume ?" He died on the 29th of April 1873 in Chitambo Village, Ilala, Northern Zambia and his companions Sussi and Chuma buried his heart there. Having preserved the rest of his remains, they carrried them 1,500 km (1,000m) back to the coast. His remains were shipped back to Britain and laid to rest in "Explorers Corner" in Westminster Abbey but symbolically his heart has always remained in Africa

 

The Statue of Dr. David Livingstone next to Victoria Falls

 

Chuma

 

Sussi

 

Etching of the famous meeting between Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley at Lake Tanganyika

 

 

 

The bridge under construction 1903 & 1904

 

The Solent flying Boat

 

The Solent flying boat service route 1948-1950

 

 

 

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Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife management Authority

Proudly Welcomes you to

Victoria Falls / Mosi-Oa-Tunya Unesco World Heritage Site

 

Zimbabwe Unesco World Heritage Sites and Nationa Parks

 

The Seven Natural Wonders of The World

 

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority proudly welcomes you to Victoria Falls / Mosi-Oa-Tunya. The name Mosi-Oa-Tunya, taken from the Lozi language, means "The Smoks That Thunders" and this is the traditional name of the Victoria Falls.

 

The Victoria Falls / Mois-Oa-Tunya is a source of great pride for the whole of Africa.

 

 

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Formation of Victoria Falls

Early Geology

The cliffs of the Batoka Gorge are made up of basalt rock that was laid down 150 million years ago and when this lava cooled and solidified, it contracted-cracking or "faulting" in the area of Victoria Falls. In time this mass of broken rock was covered over with deopsits form the Karoo System and later the Kalahari System and so preserved for millions of years

 

Basalt Magma

 

 

 

River capture

5 million years ago there was a geological shift that caused an uplift in the area of central Botswana. This blocked the courses of the upper Zambezi, which had been flowing south to join with the Limpopo River, and created a paleolake, the remnants of which, today form the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans. When this lake finally overflowed into the Matesi River it quickly carried away the deposits that had been covering the basalt and then began to remove the broken rock one block at a time, form within the fault lines. Basalt is a very dense, hard rock that resists erosion so the river removes it one block at a time rather than a grain at a time, as would happen with a softer rock. This explains why the gorge, and even the face of the waterfall itself, is not a smooth, water worn surface but retains a rough hewn appearance.

 

Previous Sites of The Falls

There have been 8 previous sites of the waterfall in this area created as the river has worked its way back upstream, from fault line to fault line. These are clearly visible when viewed from the air. It is believed that the next line of the Falls will originate from the area around the Devils Cataract- either form the Cataract itself or from the cleft that runs through Cataract island. This new site of the Falls will run diagonally back across the river but it will take another 10,000 years to excavate the full length of this new fault line. This is such a slow process that the change from one year to the next is indiscernible.

 

 

 

 

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