Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
bia is huge. At some 752,000 sq km, it's about the size of France, England and the Repub-
lic of Ireland combined.
Zambia is chock full of rivers. The Luangwa, the Kafue and the mighty Zambezi dom-
inate western, southern and eastern Zambia, flowing through a beautiful mix of flood
plains, forests and farmland. In the north, the main rivers are the Chambeshi and the
Luapula; both sources of the Congo River. Northern Zambia has many smaller rivers, too,
and the broken landscape helps create a stunning scenery of lakes, rapids and waterfalls.
Of course, Zambia's most famous waterfall is Victoria Falls, where the Zambezi River
plunges over a mile-wide cliff before thundering down the long, zigzagging Batoka
Gorge. The Zambezi flows into Lake Kariba, created by a dam but still one of the largest
lakes in Africa. In northern Zambia is the even larger Lake Tanganyika - it's 675km long,
the second deepest in the world, and holds one-sixth of the earth's fresh water.
In the south and east, Zambia is cut by deep valleys, some of of which are branches of
the Great Rift Valley. The Zambezi Valley is the largest, and defines the county's southern
border, while the 700km-long Luangwa Valley is lined by the steep and spectacular
Muchinga Escarpment.
Even the flats of Zambia can be stunning: the endless grassy Busanga Plains in Kafue
National Park attract fantastic wildlife, while the Liuwa Plain - part of the even larger Up-
per Zambezi flood plain that makes up much of western Zambia - is home to Africa's
second-largest wildebeest migration.
Some of Zambia's other geographical highlights include the breathtaking high, rolling
grasslands of the Nyika Plateau, the seasonally flooded wetlands of the Kafue Flats, the
teak forests of the Upper Zambezi, and the Kariba and Mpata Gorges on the Lower Zam-
bezi.
One of the more ubiquitous features of the landscape are the sculpture-like termite
mounds, some several metres high, that appear closely grouped together like a crowded
cemetery. These methane-producing structures, built from a mix of termite excrement and
soil, do soak up rainwater, and of course the termites themselves break down dead wood.
THE ZAMBEZI: RIVER OF AFRICA
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, after the Nile, the Congo and the Niger, and it has a long and
varied course through Zambia. It rises in the far northwestern corner of the country and flows through a short sec-
tion of Angola before re-entering Zambia and creating the huge flood plains around Mongu. Further downstream,
