The Victoria Falls Big Tree

The Victoria Falls Big Tree, 2011 (Image credit: Peter Roberts)

The Big Tree of Victoria Falls is one of the important heritage sites in the area. This massive baobab (Adansonia digitata) stands proud just off Zambezi River Drive. It is known throughout Zimbabwe and indeed across the globe, for over the last century thousands of visitors have seen this giant of the veld.

Early visitors to the Big Tree, 1915 (Image credit: Percy Clark)

Along with photographs of the Falls themselves, there are countless historical images of the Big Tree. Those in my collection show surprisingly little change over the last century, other than the two stems towards the Zambezi. This suggests that on the whole the tree is no longer actively growing and expanding outward. There is a possibility that the main trunk actually consists of several fused stems, a not uncommon feature of baobabs.

The Big Tree, 1950s

The tree is just under 17m in diameter. Some have suggested, on the basis of data collected from growing baobabs, that this equates to an age of 1,500 to 2,000 years. Indeed this may be so, but for how long has this tree been in stasis, expanding no further? We will probably never know and all respect is due to this grand old lady of Victoria Falls.

While by no means the largest baobab in Zimbabwe, the Big Tree of Victoria Falls has been silent witness to centuries of human change. It was there when the first farmers started to till the soil in this area. It has seen shifting tribal groups and political alliances – Tonga, Leya, Lozi, Nambya and Ndebele.

The Victoria Falls, painted by Thomas Baines, 1863.

Being near to the Falls it was a popular camping spot for European travellers in the precolonial period. Not however David Livingstone. His travels were on the north bank of the Zambezi when he first documented the Falls, but others have camped here, like hunter James Chapman, artist Thomas Baines, trader George Westbeach and Czech traveller and collector Emil Holub. Could the large baobab illustrated in one of Baines’ paintings on the far left distance be the big tree? Dated to 1863 it probably is. It certainly appears on Holub’s 1870 map of the Falls.

It was near here that Albert Geise, the man who first pegged coal at Hwange, had a trading store long before the town of Victoria Falls existed. Also nearby was one of two south bank crossing points for those wanting to go north. Later the Victoria Falls Hotel used the spot when it had its own launches for early Zambezi Cruises. The now abandoned jetty was linked to the hotel by a narrow gauge rail track on which trolleys were pushed by human effort.

Sadly the Big Tree was scarred by many of its early visitors, as well as some more recent. What pride can one take in spoiling a tree like this? There is also concern that elephants, that have damaged this area that was once a thick forest, could smash it. Some years ago, no one can tell me just when, the local authorities fenced in the tree. This has never really worked for long and the fence is periodically replaced. It is an unfortunate visual scar spoiling modern photographs, while I see that it still doesn’t exclude humans.

The Big Tree, 2009 (Image credit: Rob Burrett)

When next you get to pay homage to this old lady, remember her age and treat her with respect. Even the slightest scar can get infected and cause death. We will all be losers should we lose the Big Tree so that she cannot also be gazed upon by our children’s children’s children.

Read more articles from this issue:
Zambezi Traveller (Issue 13, June 2013)

Read more about baobabs:
The Big Tree (ZT, Issue 13, June 2013)
Succulent folds of grey (ZT, Issue 13, June 2013)
The baobab’s secret (ZT, Issue 13, June 2013)
In love with baobabs (ZT, Issue 09, Sept 2012)

Read more about the region in our destination guide:
Victoria Falls