ZAMBESI, itim-bez4, or ZAMBEZI, South Africa, a river rising in Portuguese West Africa, in lat. IV 21' r S., and long. 24' Zt E., and reaching the Indian Ocean at Chinde and Conceifao in Portuguese East Africa, oppo site Madagascar, after a total course of 2.200 miles, of which the middle part belongs wholly to Rhodesia. The Victoria Falls and the Ke brabasa Rapids, the former in the west of Rho desia and the latter in Portuguese East Africa, above Tete, are regarded as dividing the river into three sections, the Upper, Middle and Lower Zambesi. The neighborhood of the source has an altitude of about 5,(110 feet, and the river has its origin in a deep depression at the lose of steep undulations, where the water oozes from a black marshy bog and quickly collects into a well-defined stream. Another head-stream of the Zambesi is the Kabompo, which rises in the northwest of Rhodesia, about lat. 11' 34' S.. and long. 25° 17' E, also at an altitude of 5.000 feet, and in a region of ors grassy downs. The former stream, at first known as Yambeshe and that as Liambai (Liambeslic), flows at first west with a south ward trend, and then turns south-southeast. Ten miles of rapids precede the Sapuma cata racts (13° 7 S.), where the riser flows •through a narrow rocky fissure into a pool of considerable extent.* At about 14- S. it is joined by the Kabompo from the northeast, and the remaining course of the Upper Zam besi has a south and southeasterly direction through the grassy Marotse country, and is marked by vanous cataracts and rapids. Sesheki is a place of some importance on the left hank, near where the river begins to be wholly in British territory and a short distance farther down, opposite 1Camugula, it receives from the west the waters of the large tributary Kuanda. In about 18° S. there are the cele brated Victoria Falls (q.v.), discovered by Liv ingstone in 1855. Here the broad river sud denly plunges into a transverse chasm 400 feet deep amidst a scene of tremendous grandeur. The gorge just below (eight miles long) and in full view of the falls is spanned since 1904 by a lofty bridge on the Cape to Cairo Railway.
The Middle Zambesi, whose direction is east, northeast and again east, receives the Guay Shangani and Sanyati from the south; the Ka fukwe and Loangwa from the north, the latter at Zumbo, where the river leaves British terri tory; and is interrupted by various rapids and rocks, especially at low water, the Kebrabasa Rapids being the first impassable obstacle to navigation from the month. The remaining course of the river (Lower Zambesi) has been described as, except for the Lupata Gorge, "merely a broad expanse of sand, three to five miles wide, with low, reed-fringed banks, and intersected by numerous shallow streams' It passes the town of Tete, below which it is joined on the right by the Mazoe, and after passing Sena it receives from the left the Shire from Lake Nyassa, the waterway to British Central Africa. It enters the Indian Ocean by several mouths, of which the Chinde one is the most practicable. The delta covers an area of about 25,000 square miles, and begins about 90 miles from the coast, a little below the confluence of the main stream with the Shire. The river drains an area estimated at 600,000 square miles. Its basin is separated hom that of the Orange River on the southwest by a slight watershed, and from that of the Limpopo on the south by a mountain range. The valley of the Zambesi is capable of im mense development in the way of trade. The Portuguese government has long exercised sway for 300 miles from the mouths of the river, and by the international arrangement of June 1891 the river from the coast to the con fluence of the Loangwa s recognized as being in Portuguese territory. The Zambesi and its affluents are now free to the flags of all nations. The Upper Zambesi was first explored by Liv ingstone, who reached the Liambai in 1851. Consult Coillard, 'On the Threshold of Central Africa' (1897) •' Gibbons, 'Africa from South to North' (1904); Livingstone, 'Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambezi and its Tribu taries' (1865).