Limpopo
Limpopo River in Mozambique
Mouth	Indian Ocean
Basin countries	South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique
Length	1,600 km (1,100 mi)
Basin area	413,000 km²

Course and Watershed of the Limpopo River

The Limpopo River rises in the interior of Africa, and flows generally eastwards towards the Indian Ocean. It is around 1,600 kilometers long (or 1,770 km according to another source). The Limpopo is the second largest river in Africa that drains to the east after Zambezi River. The Limpopo river flows in a great arc, first zig-zagging northeast and north, then turning east and finally southeast. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1681x1105, 532 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Limpopo River Natural disaster ... A drainage basin is the area within the drainage basin divide (blue outline), and drains the surface runoff and river discharge (green lines) of a contiguous area. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 570 pixel Image in higher resolution (1150 × 820 pixel, file size: 591 KB, MIME type: image/png) Other versions Image:Limpopo_watershed_plain. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 800 × 570 pixel Image in higher resolution (1150 × 820 pixel, file size: 591 KB, MIME type: image/png) Other versions Image:Limpopo_watershed_plain. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ... For other uses, see River (disambiguation). ... Zambezi River in North Western Zambia The Zambezi (also spelled Zambesi) is a river in Southern Africa. ...

Then it serves as a border for about 640 kilometres, separating South Africa on the southeast bank from Botswana in the northwest and Zimbabwe on the north. There are several rapids as the river falls off Southern Africa's interior escarpment. A rapid is a section of a river where it loses elevation over a relatively short distance (that is, the stream gradient is locally steepened), causing an increase in water flow and (usually) turbulence. ... In geology, an escarpment is a transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves an elevation differential, often involving high cliffs. ...

The main tributary is the Olifants/Letaba river (Elephant River). The port town of Xai-xai, Mozambique is on the river near the mouth. Below the Olifants, the river is permanently navigable to the sea, though a sandbar prevent large ships' access except at high tide. This is a tributary of the Limpopo River in South Africa. ... Xai-Xai is a city in the south of Mozambique. ... A river or canal is Navigatable if the water is deep and wide enough, and not flowing too fast. ... Sand bars in the Mississippi River at Arkansas and Mississippi A bar is a linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water. ...

The waters of the Limpopo are indeed sluggish and silty. Rainfall is seasonal and unreliable. In dry years, the upper parts of the river flow for 40 days or less. The upper part of the drainage basin is arid, in the Kalahari desert, but becomes ever less arid further down the river. The next reaches drain the Waterberg massif, a biome of semi-deciduous forest and low density human population.^[1] The lower reaches are fertile and heavily populated. Floods after the rainy season are an occasional problem in the lower reaches, most notably the catastrophic floods in February 2000, which was caused by heavy rainfall and a cyclone. In meteorology, precipitation is any kind of water that falls from the sky as part of the weather. ... A drainage basin is the area within the drainage basin divide (blue outline), and drains the surface runoff and river discharge (green lines) of a contiguous area. ... The Kalahari Desert is a large, arid to semi-arid sandy area in southern Africa that covers about 500,000 km². It covers 70% of Botswana, and parts of Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. ... River gorge in the Lapalala Wilderness, Waterberg, South Africa, showing horizontal sandstone layering. ... A biome is a major class of ecologically similar communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, often reffered to as ecosystems. ... Deciduous means temporary or tending to fall off (deriving from the Latin word decidere, to fall off). ... Flooding in Amphoe Sena, Ayutthaya Province, Thailand. ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ...

At the north-eastern corner of South Africa the river touches the greatest conservation area. 14 Million people live in the Limpopo river basin, an area around 413,000 km². Water demand exceeds supply. Most of the people living in the Limpopo river basin are poor, and starvation and malnutrition are not uncommon during drought or crop failure. Fields outside Benambra, Victoria, Australia suffering from drought conditions A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. ...

Vasco da Gama was the first European to sight the river, when one of his expeditions 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. For other uses, see Vasco da Gama (disambiguation). ... 1498 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Mokopane (previously called Potgietersrus) is a town in the Limpopo Province of South Africa. ... Species †A. afarensis (Lucy) †A. africanus †A. anamensis †A. bahrelghazali †A. garhi Formerly Australopithecus, now Paranthropus † † † For the song Australopithecus by Modest Mouse, see Sad Sappy Sucker. ...

Sign at the viewing deck of the Limpopo River at Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa.

The Limpopo was immortalized in the short story "The Elephant's Child" by British author Rudyard Kipling, in the Just So Stories, where it is described as "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees," where the "Bi-Coloured Python Rock-Snake" dwells. Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Metadata No higher resolution available. ... This article is about the British author. ... See also Just-so story for anthropological sense Wikisource has original text related to this article: Just So Stories The Just So Stories for Little Children were written by British author Rudyard Kipling. ... Binomial name Acacia xanthophloea Acacia xanthophloea (Fever Tree) is a tree originating in southern Africa that has become a landscape tree in other warm climates. ...

References

External links

• Map of the Limpopo River basin at Water Resources eAtlas

Coordinates: 25°10′S, 33°35′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...