The Zambezi River forms much of the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe near Victoria Falls.
The Zambezi is southern Africa’s fourth-longest river, flowing for roughly 2,574 kilometres from northwestern Zambia to the Indian Ocean. Near the Zambia–Zimbabwe border, it plunges over Victoria Falls, one of the world’s largest waterfalls by width. The falls are known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, commonly translated as “The Smoke That Thunders.”
Victoria Falls lies directly on the international boundary, with Zambia’s Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park on one side and Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls National Park on the other. The river continues through a series of gorges below the falls, where the Victoria Falls Bridge links the Zambian town of Livingstone with Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.
The Zambezi is not the same as the Limpopo, which forms sections of borders farther south, or the Okavango, which spreads into Botswana’s inland delta. David Livingstone became the first recorded European visitor to view Victoria Falls in 1855 and named them for Queen Victoria, although local names and knowledge long predated his visit.