Zimbabwe

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Entry posted by korver · October 31, 2020

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true earth

Our tour continues on today with Zimbabwe - this landlocked country of 14 million is known for its dramatic landscape, much of it within parks and reserve areas. On the Zambezi River, the iconic Victoria Falls make a thundering 108m drop into narrow Batoka Gorge, where there’s white-water rafting and bungee-jumping. Downstream are Matusadona and Mana Pools national parks and other nature reserves, protected parks and vast bushland can be found across the rest of the country - and the capital city of Harare serves as an important regional hub. Today, we'll be taking a trip to explore some of the country's best natural, rural, and urban sights.

The trip begins in Harare - the capital of Zimbabwe. Formerly known as Salisbury, the city was founded in 1890 at the spot where the British's Pioneer Column halted its march into Mashonaland; and it was named for Lord Salisbury, then British prime minister. The name Harare is derived from that of the outcast Chief Neharawe, who, with his people, occupied the kopje (the hill at the foot of which the commercial area grew) at the time the Pioneer Column arrived and seized the land. The city was created a municipality in 1897 and developed after the arrival of the railway (1899) from the port of Beira, Mozambique, becoming a market and mining centre. It was chartered as a city in 1935. Industrialization during and after World War II led to an influx of population. Salisbury was the capital of the colony of Southern Rhodesia, of the short-lived Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953–63), and of Rhodesia during the period of the unilateral declaration of independence (1965–79). It was retained as capital by the new government of independent Zimbabwe (1980) and renamed Harare. Over the years, the city has grown considerably and now boasts one of the continent's most impressive modern skylines.

North of Harare lies a monumental man-made wonder - the Kariba Dam. This massive concrete arch dam lies across the Zambezi River at Kariba Gorge, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Construction of the dam began on Nov. 6, 1956, and was completed in 1959. The structure is 420 feet (128 m) high with a crest 1,899 feet in length and a volume of 1,350,000 cubic yards. The dam creates Lake Kariba, and it supplies some 6,700,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, generated by Kariba North Bank and South Bank companies (Zambia and Zimbabwe, respectively). Its creation required the resettlement of more than 30,000 Batonka tribespeople of Zambia and the evacuation of thousands of wild animals, as was known as "Operation Noah". Some initially opposed construction of the dam, seeing it as a symbol of the unpopular Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which dissolved into Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Zambia in 1963. Later, however, the dam was accepted because of the inexpensive electric power it furnishes to Zambia’s prosperous copper industry. Today however, the dam faces an uncertain future as it has fallen into a state of decline with parts of the concrete structure starting to crumble - putting the whole region downstream at risk. Restoration efforts have stalled over the years, but have tentatively begun once again, and will hopefully restore the dam to it's former state.

Although Zimbabwe's large urban cities like Harare have grown rapidly in the last couple of decades, most of the country's population still live in rural settlements, dotted across the country's arid landscape. Some in the rugged eastern portion of the country still live in thatched homes, similarly to how previous generations lived here hundreds of years ago. These homes provide a sturdy shelter from the elements and are able to be built from the ground up rather quickly - allowing the locals to move around freely if needed.

Zimbabwe is a country renown for its animals, and one of the best places to visit to see the best of what the country has to offer is Mana Pools National Park. Located in the far north of Zimbabwe, it includes the south bank and islands of the Zambezi River, which forms the border with Zambia. The park is famed for its large populations of animals that gather at sunrise in the Long Pool, as seen below.

We head back towards the interior of the country, which is where you'll find one of the world's most impressive historical landmarks - Great Zimbabwe. This ruined city was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's Late Iron Age - construction on the city began in the 11th century and continued until it was mysteriously abandoned in the 15th century.

Zimbabwe's rugged interior is also home to a variety of unique natural wonders like the Matobo Hills, a UNESCO World Heritage Center. The area exhibits a profusion of distinctive rock landforms like the Mother and Child Balancing Rock (as seen below) that rise above the granite shield that covers much of Zimbabwe. The large boulders provide abundant natural shelters and have been associated with human occupation from the early Stone Age right through to early historical times, and intermittently since. They also feature an outstanding collection of rock paintings. The Matobo Hills continue to provide a strong focus for the local community, which still uses shrines and sacred places closely linked to traditional, social and economic activities.

The last scene from Zimbabwe we'll be traveling to is none other than the mighty Victoria Falls. This massive waterfall on the Zambezi River provides habitat for countless unique species of plants and animals. It is located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and is considered to be one of the world's largest waterfalls due to its width of 1,708 meters. It was described by the Kololo tribe living in the area in the 1800s as ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ – ‘The Smoke that Thunders’. Columns of spray can be seen from miles away as, at the height of the rainy season, more than five hundred million cubic meters of water per minute plummet over the edge, over a width of nearly two kilometres, into a gorge over one hundred meters below. The wide, basalt cliff over which the falls thunder, transforms the Zambezi from a placid river into a ferocious torrent cutting through a series of dramatic gorges.