Which British explorer was the first to sight the Victoria Falls?

David Livingstone was the first European explorer to sight Victoria Falls. He reached the falls on 16 November 1855 during his expedition along the Zambezi River and recorded the spectacular cataract from an island now known as Livingstone Island.

Livingstone named the falls after Queen Victoria, although local communities already knew them as Mosi-oa-Tunya, meaning “The Smoke That Thunders.” The indigenous name refers to the immense spray cloud that rises above the Zambezi and can be seen from many miles away.

The wording “first to sight” needs a little historical context: local people had known and visited the falls long before Livingstone arrived. He was the first widely documented European explorer to see them. The falls lie on the border between present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe, where the Zambezi plunges across a broad series of basalt gorges.