Lumangwe Falls on the

Kalungwishi River The Kalungwishi River flows west in northern Zambia into Lake Mweru. It is known for its waterfalls, including the Lumangwe Falls, Kabweluma Falls, Kundabwika Falls and Mumbuluma Falls. There are plans to build two hydro power plants on the ...

in northern

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...

is the largest waterfall wholly within the country, with a height of 30-40 m and a width of 100-160 m. It is a block-type waterfall located between the

Luapula The Luapula River is a section of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. It is a transnational river forming for nearly all its length part of the border between Zambia and the DR Congo. It joins Lake Bangweulu (wholly in Zambia) to Lake Mwe ...

and

Northern Provinces The Northern Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "TVL". It includes the S ...

. The main bedrock is interbedded

quartzite Quartzite is a hard, non- foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone.Essentials of Geology, 3rd Edition, Stephen Marshak, p 182 Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tect ...

with layers of red

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...

. The falls are 80 km from Mporokoso on the Kawambwa road. It has a similar depth of water falling over the edge to the

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and animal ...

(Mosi-oa-Tunya) on the

Zambezi The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

for which it is frequently mistaken in photographs. Lumangwe Falls forms part of the Lumangwe Falls / Kabwelume Falls / Chimpepe Falls Complex, a national monument in Zambia. At the river's height at the end of the rainy season in April / May, spray from the waterfall may be carried 100 m into the air and the roaring sound in the gorge below seems to shake the ground. Lumangwe Falls are reached via a 10 km earth road which turns west from the

Kawambwa Kawambwa is a town in the Zambian province of Luapula located on thedge of the northern Zambian plateau above the Luapula valley at an altitude of 1300 m. It was chosen as an administrative district of the same name by the British colonial author ...

Mporokoso Mporokoso (also spelled and pronounced 'Mpolokoso' and 'Mumpolokoso') is a town in the Northern Province of Zambia, lying at an elevation of nearly 1500 m on the flat plateau about 75 km south east of Lake Mweru Wantipa and 100 km south-west of ...

gravel road, 2.5 km north-east of the Kalungwishi bridge at Chipempe, which replaced the pontoon (Kalungwishi Ferry) in 2004. The falls can be viewed from the bank of the river at the top and from a cliff almost opposite the drop. Paths lead to the foot of the falls and also down the gorge to Kabwelume Falls 6 km downstream. The falls have not seen the same level of tourism as the more well-known Victoria Falls. A council planning officer reported to the

Zambia Daily Mail The ''Zambia Daily Mail'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper published in Zambia. It is one of two state-owned papers of the Zambian government. History and operations The newspaper arose from the ''Central African Mail'', which ...

that this was because the area was previously sacred to chiefs in the district who would pay homage to their ancestors, and the area was avoided by the common people. Attempts to open the Lumangwe Falls area began in 1975, but were unsuccessful until 1996. This was attributed to the chiefs agreeing to move the ancestral spirits to a different location. The name of the falls comes from a snake spirit, Lumangwe, which is said to have stretched itself between the Lumangwe falls and the

Kabwelume Falls Kabwelume Falls is a waterfall on the Kalungwishi River in the Northern Province of Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typi ...

, a distance of roughly 5 km.

Ecology

Slightly downstream from Lumangwe Falls is the only known location of the flower '' Zygotritonia atropurpurea'', identified by

Peter Goldblatt Peter Goldblatt (born 1943) is a South African botanist, working principally in the United States. Life Goldblatt was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on October 8, 1943. His undergraduate studies (B.Sc.) were undertaken at the University ...

et al. in 2019.

References

{{coord, 9, 32, S, 29, 23, E, display=title

Waterfalls of Zambia Geography of Northern Province, Zambia