Kazungula – Bridge and Regional Perspectives

Kazungula and the nearby bridge

It connects Kasane in Botswana with Kazungula in Zambia and opened in May 2021. The bridge provides a cross-border context for the town. For cultural, natural, and landscape-related topics, Zambia’s Southern Province offers a separate, broader framework.

World Heritage and culture in the Southern Province

Livingstone, described as Zambia’s tourism capital, is in the Southern Province. It is home to the transboundary UNESCO World Heritage Site Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls, which Zambia shares with Zimbabwe. The World Heritage Site includes 3,779 hectares of Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park in Zambia. Livingstone’s tourism designation and the shared World Heritage Site therefore represent different regional aspects. The two cross-border connections involve different pairs of countries: the Kazungula Bridge connects Kasane in Botswana with Kazungula in Zambia, while the World Heritage Site Mosi-oa-Tunya / Victoria Falls is shared by Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is therefore important to identify which of the two national borders is meant in each case.

Nature and history in protected areas

The Southern Province has a network of rivers and lakes, including the Zambezi, the Kafue, and Lake Kariba. The province’s national parks include Lochinvar, Blue Lagoon, and Mosi-oa-Tunya; Kafue National Park is partly within the Southern Province. This broader perspective therefore encompasses both bodies of water and several protected areas.

Lochinvar National Park is in the Southern Province. Its landscape includes floodplains, wooded areas, and termite mounds. The Gwisho Hot Springs lie along a geological fault in the park. Sebanzi Hill is an archaeological site and was the site of an Iron Age village that was inhabited until the last century. The references to the Iron Age and later settlement give the site’s history its own temporal dimension; the landscape and geology are other themes of the park.

Lochinvar also offers opportunities for birdwatching, with more than 420 species recorded there. This allows visitors to explore different interests in landscape, archaeological history, and birdwatching within the same national park.

Kafue National Park adds water-based activities to the regional picture. Most riverside camps and lodges in the park offer boat trips year-round; canoe trips are available especially near Kaingu. Water levels also vary considerably over the course of the year. If one of these activities affects your plans, check its availability with the relevant operator, as offerings may vary. Boat trips and canoe trips differ in the type of watercraft used.

For your trip planning, you can distinguish between two geographical levels: the Kazungula Bridge in the destination’s immediate surroundings and the broader themes of the Southern Province. This lets you consider Kazungula as a search destination and place the province’s cultural or natural attractions in a wider regional context.

Discover more destinations: Komanyana, Jenga Jenga, Siatwinda, Kalomo, Simonga, Sinazongwe, Mafuta, Ngoma.

For the broader travel overview: Southern Province.