page_title: Zambezi
section_title: Exploration of the river
hierarchical_section_title: Zambezi / History / Exploration of the river
caption_attribution_description: Čeština: Viktoriiny vodopády vyfotografované z Mezinárodní vesmírné stanice (ISS). Původní obrázek poskytla Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center (eol.jsc.nasa.gov), ID obrázku: ISS007-E-14361. (Přesunuto z http://en.wikipedia.org.) English: Victoria Falls seen from the International Space Station. Original image courtesy of the Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center (eol.jsc.nasa.gov), image ID: ISS007-E-14361. (Moved from http://en.wikipedia.org.)
context_page_description: The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 square kilometres, slightly less than half of the Nile's. The 2,574-kilometre-long river arises in Zambia and flows through eastern Angola, along the north-eastern border of Namibia and the northern border of Botswana, then along the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, where it crosses the country to empty into the Indian Ocean.
  The Zambezi's most noted feature is Victoria Falls. Other notable falls include the Chavuma Falls at the border between Zambia and Angola, and Ngonye Falls, near Sioma in Western Zambia.
  There are two main sources of hydroelectric power on the river, the Kariba Dam, which provides power to Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the Cahora Bassa Dam in Mozambique, which provides power to Mozambique and South Africa. There are additional two smaller power stations along the Zambezi River in Zambia, one at Victoria Falls and the other one near Kalene Hill in Ikelenge District.
context_section_description: The Zambezi region was known to medieval geographers as the Empire of Monomotapa, and the course of the river, as well as the position of lakes Ngami and Nyasa, were given broadly accurately in early maps. These were probably constructed from Arab information.
  The first European to visit the inland Zambezi river was the Portuguese degredado António Fernandes in 1511 and again in 1513, with the objective of reporting on commercial conditions and activities of the interior of Central Africa. The final report of these explorations revealed the importance of the ports of the upper Zambezi to the local trade system, in particular to East African gold trade. 
  The first recorded exploration of the upper Zambezi was made by David Livingstone in his exploration from Bechuanaland between 1851 and 1853. Two or three years later he descended the Zambezi to its mouth and in the course of this journey found the Victoria Falls. During 1858–60, accompanied by John Kirk, Livingstone ascended the river by the Kongone mouth as far as the Falls, and also traced the course of its tributary the Shire and reached Lake Malawi.
  For the next 35 years very little exploration of the river took place.
  Portuguese explorer Serpa Pinto examined some of the western tributaries of the river and made measurements of the Victoria Falls in 1878. In 1884 the Scottish-born Plymouth Brethren missionary Frederick Stanley Arnot traveled over the height of land between the watersheds of the Zambezi and the Congo, and identified the source of the Zambezi.
  He considered that the nearby high and cool Kalene Hill was a particularly suitable place for a mission.
  Arnot was accompanied by the Portuguese trader and army officer António da Silva Porto.
  In 1889 the Chinde channel north of the main mouths of the river was seen. Two expeditions led by Major A. St Hill Gibbons in 1895 to 1896 and 1898 to 1900 continued the work of exploration begun by Livingstone in the upper basin and central course of the river.
caption: Satellite image showing Victoria Falls and subsequent series of zigzagging gorges
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