Photos

Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River as seen from space. The Zambezi flows southeast in a wide bed before plunging suddenly 108 meters over the Victoria Falls into a narrow gorge. The falls and their famous spray clouds are 1.7 km (1.1 mi) long during flood season, the longest sheet of falling water in the world. The falls appear as a ragged white line in this image. The small town of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe appears just west of the falls, with smaller tourist facilities on the east bank in Zambia. Image courtesy of NASA.

A closeup of Victoria Falls. The positions of the falls are controlled by linear fault lines in the underlying basalt rocks. The falls have moved upstream (bottom to top) by intense river erosion, elongating the zig-zag gorge in the process. Prior positions of the strongly linear falls can be detected. The earliest on this cropped view may have been the longest (dashed line). The zig-zags represent subsequent positions, all with the characteristic water-worn lip on the upstream side. The falls will continue to erode northward. Image courtesy of NASA.

View of Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River as seen from the Zambian (eastern) side.

A view of one of the gorges carved out by Victoria Falls. The local name for the falls is Mosi-oa-Tunya (The Smoke that Thunders).