Editing Zambezi (section)

===Exploration===
[[File:Satellite view of Victoria Falls.jpg|thumb|Satellite image showing [[Victoria Falls]] and subsequent series of zigzagging gorges]]
The Zambezi region was known to medieval geographers as the [[Kingdom of Mutapa|Empire of Monomotapa]], and the course of the river, as well as the position of lakes [[Lake Ngami|Ngami]] and [[Lake Malawi|Nyasa]], were generally accurate in early maps. These were probably constructed from Arab information.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Zambezi|volume=28|pages=951–953|first=Frank|last=Cana}}</ref>

The first European to visit the inland Zambezi River was the Portuguese ''[[degredado]]'' [[Álvaro Fernandes|António Fernandes]] in 1511 and again in 1513, with the objective of reporting on commercial conditions and activities of the interior of Central Africa. The final report of these explorations revealed the importance of the ports of the upper Zambezi to the local trade system, in particular to East African gold trade.<ref>{{cite book |title=A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400-1668 |page=81 |first=Malyn |last=Newitt |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=0-203-32404-8}}</ref>

The first recorded exploration of the upper Zambezi was made by David Livingstone in his exploration from [[Bechuanaland Protectorate|Bechuanaland]] between 1851 and 1853. Two or three years later, he descended the Zambezi to its mouth and in the course of this journey found the Victoria Falls. During 1858–60, accompanied by [[John Kirk (explorer)|John Kirk]], Livingstone ascended the river by the Kongone mouth as far as the falls, and also traced the course of its tributary the Shire and reached Lake Malawi.<ref name="EB1911"/>

For the next 35 years, very little exploration of the river took place. Portuguese explorer [[Alexandre de Serpa Pinto|Serpa Pinto]] examined some of the western tributaries of the river and made measurements of the Victoria Falls in 1878.<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1884, Scottish-born [[Plymouth Brethren]] missionary [[Frederick Stanley Arnot]] traveled over the height of land between the watersheds of the Zambezi and the Congo and identified the source of the Zambezi.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dacb.org/stories/demrepcongo/arnot_stanley.html |work=Dictionary of African Christian Biography |title=Arnot, Frederick Stanley |year=2005 |first=Dr. J. Keir |last=Howard |access-date=14 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927002516/http://www.dacb.org/stories/demrepcongo/arnot_stanley.html |archive-date=27 September 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> He considered that the nearby high and cool [[Kalene Hill]] was a particularly suitable place for a mission.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0Avs0RFRtMC&pg=PA29 |pages=29–31 |title=Friends for life, friends for death: cohorts and consciousness among the Lunda-Ndembu |first=James Anthony |last=Pritchett |publisher=University of Virginia Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-8139-2624-7}}</ref> Arnot was accompanied by Portuguese trader and army officer [[António da Silva Porto]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lMZovHqD4kC&pg=PA30 |page=30 |title=Angola, 1880 to the present: slavery, exploitation, and revolt |first1=Bruce |last1=Fish |first2=Becky Durost |last2=Fish |publisher=Infobase Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=0-7910-6197-3}}</ref>

In 1889, the Chinde channel north of the main mouths of the river was seen. Two expeditions led by Major A. St Hill Gibbons in 1895 to 1896 and 1898 to 1900 continued the work of exploration begun by Livingstone in the upper basin and central course of the river.<ref name="EB1911" />
[[File:2 locals in a canoe in the Zambezi river.jpg|thumb|Two locals are in the Zambezi River near Victoria Falls, Zambia.]]