Victoria Falls is the largest single sheet of falling water on Earth
Neither the tallest nor the widest waterfall, yet it forms the greatest unbroken curtain of water anywhere.
On the Zambezi River, between Zambia and Zimbabwe, the river plunges over a sheer cliff spanning more than 1,700 metres (5,500 feet) wide — its full breadth at one of the river’s widest points. Its local name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, means “the smoke that thunders.”
UNESCO recognises it as the world’s greatest sheet of falling water. It isn’t the tallest waterfall, nor the single widest drop, but combining its width with a maximum plunge of about 108 metres (355 feet) makes it the largest unbroken curtain of water on the planet — roughly twice as wide and twice as deep as Niagara.
At peak flood, up to 500 million litres of water pour over the edge every minute, throwing spray visible for kilometres.
It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1989.
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