Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

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Victoria Falls
ZW-Victoria-falls-stadt-1.jpg
city centre
Victoria falls logo.jpg
Nickname: 
Folosi
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Victoria Falls
Coordinates: 17°56′S25°50′E / 17.933°S 25.833°E / -17.933; 25.833
CountryFlag of Zimbabwe.svg  Zimbabwe
Province Matabeleland North
District Hwange
Population
 (2022 census) [1]
  Total35,199
Time zone UTC+2 (CAT)
Climate BSh

Victoria Falls, popularly known as Vic Falls, is a resort town and city in the province of Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. It lies on the southern bank of the Zambezi River at the western end of Victoria Falls themselves. According to the 2022 Population Census, the town had a population of 35,199.

Contents

History

The settlement began in 1901 when the possibility of using the waterfall for hydro-electric power was explored, and expanded when the railway from Bulawayo reached the town shortly before the Victoria Falls Bridge was opened in April 1905, connecting Southern Rhodesia (later Rhodesia; now Zimbabwe) to Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia). It became the principal tourism centre for the Falls, experiencing economic booms from the 1930s to the 1960s and in the 1980s and early 1990s. Victoria Falls gained city status on 9 December 2020. [2] [3]

Geography

The town is located in the northwest of its province, along the border with Zambia, separated from it by the Zambezi River and the binational Victoria Falls in Southern Africa. It lies a few kilometers from Livingstone, and is surrounded by the Zambezi, Mosi-oa-Tunya and Victoria Falls national parks. [4]

Education

Victoria Falls has a number of primary schools with the number having increased since 2009. These include Chamabondo Primary School, Baobab Primary School, Chinotimba Primary School, Kings Primary School, Victoria Falls Primary School, Mkhosana Primary School, St Josephine Bakita Primary School, Mkhosana Adventist Primary School, Education Centre and Jacaranda Primary School. Mosi-oa-Tunya High School is the largest school in the town, and Mkhosana Adventist Secondary School (MASS) is the second largest secondary school.

In addition there are private colleges registered under the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education that provide secondary and high school education. These include Elite Independent College, Dadani Vocational Technical College, Lulu Academy (popularly known as College of charity), Herentals College and Oasis Christian Academy.

Economy

The Kingdom Hotel ZW-Victoriafalls-kingdom-4.jpg
The Kingdom Hotel
Victoria Falls Public Library Victoria Falls Public-Library.jpg
Victoria Falls Public Library

Victoria Falls' main industry is tourism, driven primarily by the waterfalls

Growth and affordability

The cost of residential housing in the Victoria Falls area is much higher than surrounding towns due to the town's reputation a tourist destination, its lack of industry and its desirability to travelers and investors. Victoria Falls is rated the second least affordable place in Zimbabwe to buy a property, behind Harare at the start of 2017. [5]

Employment

The area's growth rate is one of the fastest in the country with the population growing 7.1% from 2018 to 2019 in a 12-month period. Most jobs in the city are travel or accommodation-related. A travel boom in recent years has seen strong employment growth, the highest of any area in Zimbabwe at 10.3% in the 2018 year, fueling the growth of the city as young people move to the area in search of employment opportunities. [5]

Retail

Victoria Falls has a tourist-focused shopping area, centred around the Elephant Walk and Sawanga Shopping Mall. The former, a public pedestrian street opened in 1990. [6] Victoria Falls Shopping Centre and Phumula Centre tend to offer more affordable options catering to local residents in the residential section of town.

Health

The town is served by Victoria Falls District Hospital, The Chinotimba Clinic, Mkhosana Clinic, Premier Medical Aid Society, a few surgeries and The Health Bridge private hospital.

Transport

Victoria Falls combined road-rail bridge. 0855 VictoriaFallsZimbabwe 19920803.jpg
Victoria Falls combined road-rail bridge.

Victoria Falls is connected by a road (the A8 road) and railway [7] to Hwange (109 km away) and Bulawayo (440 km away), both to the south-east. The route is part of the Cairo–Cape Town Highway (Trans-African Highway 4) and connects to the T1 highway in Zambia over the Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi river. The combined road/rail bridge is the only rail link between Zambia and Zimbabwe and one of only three road links between the two countries.

Victoria Falls railway station Estacion de Victoria Falls 01.jpg
Victoria Falls railway station

Victoria Falls and its bridge form a vital link of the greater envisaged but incomplete Cape to Cairo railway. The rail route through Victoria Falls is part of a wider important route from South Africa passing through Bulawayo to into Zambia. A luxury train service, operated by Rovos Rail, connects the city with Bulawayo, Pretoria and Johannesburg two to four times a month. Until 2020, the National Railways of Zimbabwe operated a daily service to Bulawayo as well as special steam excursion trains. [8]

Victoria Falls Airport is located 18 km south of the town and has international services to Johannesburg, Cape Town, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Dubai, Windhoek, and Gaborone and Kasane in Botswana. Domestic service connects the city with Bulawayo and Harare. Notable airlines that fly to Victoria Falls include Fastjet, Ethiopian Airlines, Eurowings discover, South African Airways and Kenya Airways. The airport's terminal and runway facilities were rebuilt and expanded in 2013. [9]

Tourism

Victoria Falls looking eastwards Victoria Falls Waterfall-West.jpg
Victoria Falls looking eastwards

A resort town, Victoria Falls has become a regional centre for adventure tourism with over 200 related activities in 2019. [10] Hiking and helicopter tours, Victoria Falls Safari Tours , jet boating, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, mountain biking, quad biking, paragliding, sky diving and fly fishing are all popular activities in addition to viewing the Falls.

Vic Falls is a major centre for outdoor pursuits in Zimbabwe, with people from all over the country and many parts of the world travelling to view the falls and the nearby Hwange National Park. Additionally, 110-year-old coal fired rail steamer offers meals to the Victoria Falls bridge and Zambian border. Central Vic Falls, hosts the bulk of the historic district, featuring the oldest hotels, restaurants and bars. [5]

The city is also the centre for the Sky Nature documentary: Gangs of Baboon Falls, a documentary soap opera chronicling the life and lives of the cities resident Chacma Baboons.

Sport

Football is the most popular sport and there are many football teams, some of which played in the first division. There have been many teams like Zimbabwe Sun Rovers, Intundla, Makasa Sun Casino, Guyu, Burning Spear, Sprayview, Mawema and The Young Warriors.

Victoria Falls Rugby Club, which started at the farm school playing touch rugby, was strengthened and played a few touring international sides at Elephant Hills Hotel. They participated at the Victoria Falls Rugby 10s in 1999, where South African, Scottish, Zambian and Kenyan teams played.

The town is known for its grade 5 rapids where white water rafting and kayaking are done. There is also a golf course, at the Elephant Hills Hotel, which held a tournament on the South African Tour in the 1970s, the Victoria Falls Classic. There is also a proposed cricket stadium.

Freedom of the City

The following people and military units have received the Freedom of the City of Victoria Falls.

Individuals

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Falls</span> Waterfall on the Zambezi River in Zambia and Zimbabwe

Victoria Falls is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and animals. It is located on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe and is one of the world's largest waterfalls, with a width of 1,708 m (5,604 ft).

Kariba is a resort town in Mashonaland West province, Zimbabwe, located close to the Kariba Dam at the north-eastern end of Lake Kariba, near the Zambian border. According to the 2022 Population Census, the town had a population of 27,600.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Falls Bridge</span> Transnational bridge connecting Zambia and Zimbabwe

The Victoria Falls Bridge crosses the Zambezi River just below the Victoria Falls and is built over the Second Gorge of the falls. As the river forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, the bridge links the two countries and has border posts on the approaches to both ends, at the towns of Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, and Livingstone, Zambia.

Hwange, originally known as Wankie, is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Hwange District, in Matabeleland North Province, in northwestern Zimbabwe, close to the international borders with Botswana and Zambia. It lies approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi), by road, southeast of Victoria Falls, the nearest large city. The town lies on the railway line from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second-largest city, to Victoria Falls. Hwange sits at an elevation of 770 metres (2,530 ft), above sea level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Livingstone, Zambia</span> Place in Southern Province, Zambia

Livingstone is a city in Zambia. Until 1935, it served as the capital of Northern Rhodesia. Lying 10 km (6 mi) to the north of the Zambezi River, it is a tourism attraction center for the Victoria Falls and a border town with road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Victoria Falls. A historic British colonial city, its present population was enumerated at 177,393 inhabitants at the 2022 census. It is named after David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer and missionary who was the first European to explore the area. Until 2011, Livingstone was the provincial capital of Zambia's Southern Province.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beitbridge</span> Town in Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe

Beitbridge is a border town in the province of Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe. The name also refers to the border post and bridge spanning the Limpopo River, which forms the political border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. The border on the South African side of the river is also named Beitbridge.

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Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is home to one half of the Mosi-oa-Tunya "The Smoke that Thunders", known worldwide as Victoria Falls — on the Zambezi River. The river forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, so the falls are shared by the two countries, and the park is twin to the Victoria Falls National Park on the Zimbabwean side.

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Dete is a small railway re-crewing depot and a developing town on the Bulawayo-Hwange-Victoria Falls railway line in Zimbabwe, approximately 300 km (190 mi) north-west of Bulawayo and 67 km (42 mi) south-east of Hwange, lying within the Hwange National Park.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusaka–Livingstone Road</span> Road in Zambia

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Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area is the second-largest nature and landscape conservation area in the world, spanning the international borders of five countries in Southern Africa. It includes a major part of the Upper Zambezi River and Okavango basins and Delta, the Caprivi Strip of Namibia, the southeastern part of Angola, southwestern Zambia, the northern wildlands of Botswana and western Zimbabwe. The centre of this area is at the confluence of the Zambezi and Chobe Rivers where the borders of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe meet. It incorporates a number of notable national parks and nature sites, including Chobe National Park, Hwange National Park, and the Victoria Falls. The region is home to a population of approximately 250,000 animals, including the largest population of African Elephants in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Livingstone District</span> District in Southern Province, Zambia

Livingstone District is a district of Zambia, located in Southern Province. The capital lies at Livingstone, Zambia. As of the 2000 Zambian Census, the district had a population of 103,288 people. Its border with Zimbabwe is formed by the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls. Although most people live in Livingstone, other villages include Jinga Jinga in the north and Simonga in the southwest.

The A8 Highway is a paved primary trunk road in Zimbabwe running from Bulawayo to Victoria Falls. It is managed by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA). It is part of the R9 Route, which links Victoria Falls with Beitbridge.

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References

  1. Citypopulation.de Population of cities & urban localities in Zimbabwe
  2. 1 2 "Victoria Falls hands 'Freedom of the City' honour to E.D". The Chronicle. 9 December 2020. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  3. "Victoria Falls gets city status | Members". UCAZ | Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe. 8 December 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  4. 242554643 Victoria Falls on OpenStreetMap
  5. 1 2 3 "UK drives tourist boom in Victoria Falls". VictoriaFalls24.com. 9 October 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  6. "New Mall for Victoria Falls Town". Victoriafalls-guide.net. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  7. 471800894 Victoria Falls railway station on OpenStreetMap
  8. Chronicle, The (20 January 2023). "NRZ speaks on return of intercity passenger trains". The Chronicle. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
  9. "Live Flight Tracker - Real-Time Flight Tracker Map". Flightradar24.com. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  10. Alex Court; Diane McCarthy (18 November 2014). "Majestic Victoria Falls: 'Zimbabwe's goldmine' draws back thrill-seekers". Cnn.com. Retrieved 4 December 2021.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Victoria Falls (city) at Wikimedia Commons