Travel deep dive
Mosi-oa-Tunya: The Smoke That Thunders, Seen From Zambia
Victoria Falls, Mosi-oa-Tunya, “the smoke that thunders”, is where the Zambezi drops about a hundred metres into a narrow gorge along an edge of basalt some 1.7 kilometres wide, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Zambian side brings the visitor closest to the water, on paths along the cliff facing the falls and down to the river below them. Livingstone, about ten kilometres away, is the town that serves them, with the river above the falls and the gorge below them for everything else.
Updated 2026-10-08
The paths of the falls park
On the Zambian side the falls are seen from the paths of a small park on the cliff opposite the Eastern Cataract. The walk leads through the spray to the Knife-Edge Bridge, a footbridge out to the point that faces the main gorge, and on along the edge, where every opening shows another stretch of falling water. At high water the spray soaks everything on the paths, and a raincoat or waterproof bag for the camera is part of the visit.
Down to the Boiling Pot
Below the falls the Zambezi turns sharply into the zigzag gorges that carry it away, and at the first bend it churns in a great whirlpool, the Boiling Pot. A steep path leads down through the rainforest of the gorge to the rocks beside it, where the whole weight of the river passes under the bridge high above. The climb back up is the hard part, and it is best done early, before the heat of the day.
High water and low water
The falls change through the year more than most visitors expect. In the months after the rains, from about February to May, the river runs at full volume, the spray rises far above the gorge and hides much of the view from the paths, and everything is wet. Late in the year, as the river drops, the falls on the Zambian side thin to strands and parts of the edge run dry, while the rock face and the gorge come into view. The months between give the clearest view of the most water.
Devil's Pool and Livingstone Island
When the river is low, from about August to January, a natural pool on the lip of the falls can be reached from Livingstone Island, the island in the river where David Livingstone first saw the falls in 1855. Visits are made on guided trips by boat to the island, and swimmers sit in the pool at the very edge of the drop. When the water rises, the pool closes.
The bridge, the gorge and the river above
The Victoria Falls Bridge, built in 1905, spans the gorge between the Zambian and the Zimbabwean border posts, and bungee jumps and swings are made from it. Below it the Zambezi runs through the Batoka Gorge in a string of rapids that are rafted, best when the water is low. Above the falls the river is wide and calm, scattered with islands, and boat trips at the end of the day, canoeing on the upper river and flights over the falls by helicopter or microlight show it from a different side.
Livingstone and the national park
Livingstone is a low, spread-out town with a main street of early twentieth-century buildings, and the Livingstone Museum, with its collections on the history of the country and on David Livingstone's journeys, is its main sight. Along the river upstream of the falls, the small Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park holds giraffe, zebra, antelope and a few white rhinos watched over by guards. Mukuni, the village of the Leya chief near the falls, receives visitors on guided walks.
Getting there and the other side
Livingstone's airport has flights from Lusaka and from Johannesburg, and the town is also reached by road from Lusaka, a long day's drive. The Zimbabwean side of the falls, across the bridge, has its own park and its own entry rules, and it looks at the main falls from the front along a longer stretch of the edge. The two sides show different things: Zambia's paths come closer to the water, Zimbabwe's the wider view of the whole face.