Victoria Falls (Town)

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Victoria Falls (Town)

Victoria Falls (Town)

Victoria Falls, also known as Vic Falls, is a resort town and city in the Matabeleland North province of Zimbabwe. The town lies at the western end of the Victoria Falls, on the south bank of the Zambezi River. The town was founded in 1901 when the potential of the falls for hydroelectric power was being explored, and extended when the railway reached the town from Bulawayo, not long before the opening of the Victoria Falls Bridge in April 1905, which linked Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, with Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. The town became the main tourist center of the Falls, and from the 1930s to the 1960s, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, it underwent an economic boom. The town lies along the Zambian border, separated from it by the Zambezi River and the binational Victoria Falls. It is a few kilometers away from Livingstone and is surrounded by the national parks of Zambezi, Mosi-Oa-Tunya and Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls has become a regional hub for adventure tourism as a resort town, with hiking and helicopter tours, Victoria Falls safari tours, jet boating, whitewater rafting, bungee jumping, mountain biking, quad biking, paragliding, sky diving and fly fishing being popular activities alongside viewing the Falls. The Victoria Falls Bridge and Central Vic Falls, which is home to much of the historic district, are also popular with tourists.