Limpopo
Limpopo is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- -22.34°, 30.33°
About Limpopo
The Limpopo River () rises in South Africa and flows generally eastward through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean. The river is approximately 1,750 km (1,090 mi) long, with a drainage basin of 415,000 km2 (160,000 mi2) in size. The mean discharge measured over a year is 170 m3/s (6,000 cu ft/s) to 313 m3/s (11,100 cu ft/s) at its mouth. The Limpopo is the second largest African river that drains to the Indian Ocean, after the Zambezi.
The first European to sight the river was Vasco da Gama, who anchored off its mouth in 1498 and named it Rio do Espírito Santo (lit. 'River of the Holy Spirit'). Its lower course was explored by St Vincent Whitshed Erskine in 1868–69, and Captain J F Elton travelled down its middle course in 1870. The river has been called the Vhembe by local Venda communities of the area where now that name has been adopted by the South African government as its District Municipality in the north.
The drainage area of the Limpopo has decreased over geological time. Up to Late Pliocene or Pleistocene times, the upper course of the Zambezi River drained into the Limpopo River.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Limpopo River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Limpopo in Depth
Course
The river flows in a great arc, first zigzagging north and then north-east, then turning east and finally south-east. It serves as a border for about 640 kilometres (398 mi), separating South Africa to the southeast from Botswana to the northwest and Zimbabwe to the north. At the confluence of the Marico River and the Crocodile River, the name becomes the Limpopo River. There are several rapids as the river falls off Southern Africa's inland escarpment.
The Notwane River is a major tributary of the Limpopo, rising on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana and flowing in a north-easterly direction. The main tributary of the Limpopo, the Olifants River (Elephant River), contributes around 1,233 million m3 of water per year.
History
Vasco da Gama, on his first expedition, was probably among the first Europeans to sight the river, when he anchored off the mouth in 1498. However, there has been human habitation in the region since time immemorial—sites in the Makapans Valley near Mokopane contain Australopithecus fossils from 3.5 million years ago. St Vincent Whitshed Erskine, later surveyor general for South Africa, traveled to the mouth of the river in 1868–69.
A Zambezi shark was caught hundreds of kilometres upriver at the confluence of the Limpopo and Luvuvhu Rivers in July 1950. Zambezi sharks tolerate fresh water and can travel far up the Limpopo. In 2013, approximately 15,000 Nile crocodiles were accidentally released into the river from flood gates at the nearby Rakwena Crocodile Farm.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Limpopo River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Limpopo: Quick Answers
- Where is Limpopo?
- Limpopo is located in Mozambique and South Africa and Botswana and Zimbabwe, at 22.3446° S, 30.3344° E.
- Are there dams on the Limpopo?
- No dam on the Limpopo is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.