South African Private Safaris & Self-drives | Southern African Tours
Safari Tour Company in Cape Town South Africa
ZIMBABWE
Located in Southern Africa and bordered by South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, and Mozambique, Zimbabwe is a landlocked country with a rich cultural heritage and stunning natural beauty. Explore vast plains of game, the “Big Five,” Lake Kariba, the Zambezi River, and Victoria Falls, known as “Mosi-oa-Tunya” or “The Smoke That Thunders.” Our expertly crafted Zimbabwe tours offer an unforgettable experience, where you can discover tradition, culture, and spirituality. Don’t miss the accessible Hwange National Park, where large herds of elephants congregate at the water holes, or the off-the-beaten-track destination of Mana Pools National Park, where you can explore the wilderness by 4×4, on foot, or by canoe. Book your Zimbabwe tour with Southern African Tours today.
The famous words of Dr Livingstone described the sight as “Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight” immortalising the place for all visitors to come. Mists from the waterfalls can be seen over 20 kilometres away, the thundering roar can be heard long before the falls are visible.
The Victoria Falls National Park in this area is one of the twelve National Parks in Zimbabwe, largest of which is Hwange National Park. There are six animal sancturies.
The country has rich flora and diverse wildlife, such as rhinos, giraffes, zebras, kudus, elephants, hippos, baboons and more: plus many species of reptiles, insects, fish and over 600 species of birds.
The country is mostly savannah, although the moist and mountainous east supports tropical evergreen and hardwood forests. Trees include teak and mohogany, knobthorn, msasa and baobab. Among the numerous flowers and shrubs are hibiscus, spider lily, leonotus, cassia, tree wisteria and dombeya.
To add to all this natural heritage, there is the largest sub-Saharan archaeological structure, the “Great Zimbabwe” ruins in Masvingo, one of the most important archaeological sites in Africa, giving testimony to the lost civilisation of the Shona. A great city existed here from the 11th century on, with over 10.000 inhabitants. There has been controvosy over the architects but today, the most recent consensus appears to attribute the construction of Great Zimbabwe to the Shona people. Most important artefacts are the eight Zimbabwe Birds carved from soapstone. Others include soapstone figurines, pottery, elaborately worked ivory, bronze spearheads, copper ingots and crucibles, and gold beads, bracelets and pendants.
The Great Enclosure, a most formidable edifice, has walls 11 m high and extending 250 m seen as the largest sub-Saharan archaeological structure. The Matobo Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 km south of Bulawayo, were formed over 2,000 million years ago with granite being forced to the surface and after erosion smoothed to become “whaleback dwalas”. Mzilikazi, founder of the Ndebele nation, gave the area its name, meaning ‘Bald Heads’.
Traditional arts in Zimbabwe include pottery, basketry, textiles, jewellery, carving and stools made out of a single piece of wood. Shona sculpture has become world famous in recent years, emerging in the 1940s, with carved figures of stylised birds and human figures. Other materials used are soapstone, serpentine and the rare stone verdite.
