Livingstone is the tourist heart of Zambia and one of the most endearing towns in southern Africa. Named after the Scottish explorer David Livingstone, the first European to see Victoria Falls in 1855, it was for decades the capital of Northern Rhodesia and still has a colonial feel, with wooden houses, a history museum and a main avenue dotted with century-old buildings. But what put it on the modern traveller's map is its role as a base for the falls and for adventure.
Just 10 kilometres from the centre, the Zambezi plunges into the gorge of Mosi-oa-Tunya —'the smoke that thunders'—, the world-famous Victoria Falls. Livingstone is the Zambian side of this natural spectacle, with walkways that lead right to the edge of the chasm, the dizzying Knife-Edge Bridge and, at low water, the legendary Devil's Pool. A whole adrenaline industry has grown up around it: bungee jumping from the 1905 bridge, rafting through some of the most famous rapids in the world, zip lines, helicopter and microlight flights, and sunset cruises among hippos.
This guide takes a practical look at Livingstone: how to visit the falls from the Zambian side, which adventure activities to choose depending on the season, how to see white rhinos in the small national park right next to the falls, where to sleep and eat, and how to get around safely. Relaxed, warm and with a unique energy, Livingstone is much more than a stopover: it's a destination in its own right.
Livingstone began in the early 20th century as the settlement of 'Old Drift', a malaria-ridden barge crossing on the Zambezi near the falls. When the famous railway bridge over the gorge opened in 1905, the town moved to higher, healthier ground and took the name of the explorer David Livingstone, who in 1855 had become the first European to set eyes on the falls and had named them after Queen Victoria. Between 1911 and 1935 Livingstone was the capital of Northern Rhodesia; it later handed that role to Lusaka, but kept its title as the country's tourism capital for good. The full story is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The birthplace of tourism in Zambia: by the Zambezi roars Mosi-oa-Tunya, 'the smoke that thunders', which David Livingstone renamed Victoria Falls in 1855 and which gave its name to a whole town.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before any European set foot in the region, the peoples living along the Zambezi already knew and revered the great waterfall. The Kololo and other Tonga- and Lozi-speaking groups called it 'Mosi-oa-Tunya', 'the smoke that thunders', after the huge column of spray rising above the gorge and the roar of the water, which can be seen and heard from kilometres away. For many local communities the place was sacred, a home of spirits, and offerings were made there.
The area has been inhabited since very ancient times: stone tools hundreds of thousands of years old have been found around the falls, which makes the Zambezi valley one of the settings of the long human story in Africa. In the centuries before the Europeans arrived, the region lay on trade routes for ivory, copper and, sadly, slaves too, linking the interior of central Africa with the coasts of the Indian and Atlantic oceans.
The Leya people, who still live in Mukuni village near the falls, are among the traditional inhabitants of this land. When the first European explorers arrived in the mid-19th century, they did not discover an empty place, but a landscape full of names, myths and centuries of human presence.
On 16 November 1855, the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone became the first European to set eyes on the great waterfall. Travelling down the Zambezi by canoe from the interior, guided by local paddlers, he landed on a small island in the middle of the river (today called Livingstone Island) and looked out over the abyss. Deeply moved, he wrote that scenes so lovely 'must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight', a phrase that gave its name to the famous scenic flight, the 'Flight of Angels'.
Livingstone named the falls after his sovereign, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom: 'Victoria Falls'. Although he gave it the European name that would become famous worldwide, the explorer himself acknowledged and recorded the indigenous name, Mosi-oa-Tunya, which UNESCO and Zambia proudly use today. An opponent of slavery, convinced that commerce and Christianity would 'civilise' Africa, Livingstone became a legendary figure of the Victorian 19th century.
His journeys opened up the interior of central Africa to European knowledge, and to European colonialism as well. When he died in 1873 in what is now Zambia, his African companions, Chuma and Susi, carried his body for months to the coast so it could be shipped back to England, where he rests in Westminster Abbey. The town that would bear his name was born a few years later, right beside the falls he had made known to the world.
At the end of the 19th century, Cecil Rhodes's imperial dream of a railway linking Cairo with Cape Town pushed British colonisation north of the Zambezi. Near the falls, on the north bank, a small settlement of traders, fortune-seekers and transport riders sprang up around 1898. It was known as the 'Old Drift', after the drift (a ford) where people crossed the river by barge. It was an unhealthy place, plagued by malaria, where many of the first settlers died and were buried.
Everything changed when the railway arrived. In 1905 the spectacular steel bridge over the Zambezi's second gorge opened, more than a hundred metres above the river. It was an engineering feat for its time, designed, so the legend goes, so that train passengers could feel the spray of the falls. With the bridge, the railway crossed from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) into Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), and the settlement moved to higher, healthier ground, away from the swampy Old Drift.
The new town took the name Livingstone, in honour of the explorer, and grew quickly as a railway junction and trading centre. Colonial-style buildings, hotels, churches and shops went up along the main avenue, and many of them still stand today, giving the town its period charm. Livingstone became the gateway to the territory and an essential stop on the way into the interior of central Africa.
In 1911, Livingstone was proclaimed capital of Northern Rhodesia, the territory run by Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company and, later, directly by the British Crown. As capital, the town enjoyed its golden age: administrative buildings, the seat of government, courts and official residences were built, and it became the political, commercial and social centre of the colony. In 1934 the Livingstone Museum opened its doors; today it is the oldest museum in the country.
The economy revolved around the railway, trade and, more and more, the early tourism to the falls, which was already drawing travellers and hunters from across the empire. However, Livingstone's position at the far southern end of the territory, right on the border, was impractical for governing such a vast country. The economic centre of gravity was shifting north, towards the emerging Copperbelt, whose mines would become the engine of the economy.
So in 1935 the capital of Northern Rhodesia moved to Lusaka, which was more central. Livingstone lost its status as administrative capital, but not its importance: it kept its role as a major tourist centre and its standing as a historic town, with the falls as a constant magnet for visitors. Moving the capital marked the start of a new identity for the town, no longer the seat of power, but the capital of tourism.
In 1964, Northern Rhodesia gained independence from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Zambia was born, with Kenneth Kaunda as its first president. Livingstone remained the young country's great tourist destination, but the following decades were hard for the region. The independence war in neighbouring Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in the 1970s, followed by political and economic tensions, kept visitors away from the border and sent the town into a long slumber.
For many years, much of the tourism at the falls was concentrated on the more developed Zimbabwean side. Things began to turn around in the late 1990s and, above all, from 2000 onwards, when Zimbabwe's political and economic crisis led operators and travellers to look to Livingstone again. The Zambian town then enjoyed a real revival: luxury lodges opened on the banks of the Zambezi, rafting, bungee jumping and scenic flights became professional operations, and Livingstone established itself as the 'adventure capital' of southern Africa.
In 1989, Victoria Falls / Mosi-oa-Tunya was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a recognition shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe. Today Livingstone combines its colonial heritage and its Museum with a modern, varied range of things to do, from rhino safaris to Devil's Pool. A young town with an intense history, more than a century on it is still Zambia's gateway to 'the smoke that thunders'.
