There have been eight 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 beleived that the next line of the Falls will originate from the area around the Devil’s Cataract – either from 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 lenght of this new fault line. This is such a slow process that the change from one year to the next is indiscernible.
Fotoğraf: Nur Emiroğlu, 2024.
The seasonal rise and fall of the Zambezi River changes the look of the Falls on a daily basis. The western side of the Falls is lower than the eastern side and therefore carries the most water all year round. This fluctuation is less noticable at Devil’s Cataract and Main Falls. From Livingstone Island onwards, this ebb and flow becomes more apparent and at Low Water, this portion of the Falls dries up almost completely.
Although the Falls are spectacular experience at High Water, the spray often obscures the waterfall making it difficult to see and photograph. Each time of the year has its advantages and disadvantages but it is a magnificent sight all year round (I’ve been there twice, first in January, then in May, both were magnificent).
Although this area fell under the power of the Ndebele Kingdom, the local ethnic group, known collectively as the Tonga, were largely left to govern themselves according to their own customs and traditions. Made up of an amalgamation of the Toka, Leya and Subia Tribes, these groups have a considerable history of rivalry between them, but all three groups hold the area around the Falls to be sacred ground. Given the constant spray from the Falls it will not surprise you to learn that this area is an important traditional site for rainmaking ceremonies. The most important of these, the Lwiindi, is held annually at Chief Mukuni’s Village in Zambia and draws participants from as far afield as Lesotho and Congo because of its regional significance.
The waterfall marked on maps in the early 1850’s but it was not untill the visit of the Scottish Missionary Dr. David Livingstone, on the 16th November 1855, that their existence became widely publicised in the outside World.
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