There are only two countries in the world that starts with the letter “Z”.
Zambia
Zambia is a landlocked nation in central Africa. Its name comes from the Zambezi River, which drains all but a small portion of the country’s northern region, and is located on a high plateau.
Zambia has a lot of unpopulated areas. The majority of the population is concentrated in the most developed part of the country, referred to as the Line of Rail, which is served by the railway that connects the Copperbelt with the capital Lusaka and the border town of Livingstone.
Land
Zambia shares a long land border with Angola on the west, but the Zambezi River separates it from its southern neighbors. The Caprivi Strip, a narrow extension of Namibian territory to the southwest, appears to be the point where Zambia and its three neighbors, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe, meet, though the exact nature of the meeting is disputed.
The man-made Lake Kariba is now a part of the river border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Mozambique is to the southeast, Malawi is to the east, and Tanzania is to the northeast of Zambia.
Relief
The majority of Zambia is a part of this region of Africa’s high plateau (3,000 to 5,000 feet [900 to 1,500 meters] above sea level). Where river valleys and rifted troughs, some of which are lake-filled, cut its surface, significant relief features appear. Around 600 meters (2,000 feet) below the plateau is Lake Tanganyika. The Luangwa River runs through the largest rift, which is a significant communication obstacle.
The highest elevations are found in the east, where the Mafinga Hills soar to a height of more than 7,000 feet (2,100 meters) above the Nyika Plateau, which is generally over 6,000 feet (1,800 meters) above sea level on the Malawian border. Despite the Zambezi River’s drainage turning eastward toward the Indian Ocean, the plateau’s general slope is southwest.
Ancient crystalline rocks, the result of protracted erosion processes, are exposed across the majority of the country. They are covered in younger sandy deposits in western Zambia, remnants of the Kalahari desert’s former greater extent. In the country’s central and eastern regions, down warping of the plateau’s surface creates depressions filled with lakes or swamps (like Lake Bangweulu and the Lukanga Swamp), while in higher elevations, ridges and isolated hills made of more durable rocks break up otherwise smooth skylines.
Drainage
The continental divide runs along the shared border between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo west of the Pedicle and then northeastward to the border with Tanzania. It separates the drainage systems of the Congo River, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean, and the Zambezi River, which empties into the Indian Ocean. Both Lake Tanganyika and the Luapula, which empties into Lake Mweru after draining the Bangweulu basin, are tributaries of the Congo.
Climate of Zambia
Despite being in the tropics, Zambia has a climate that is generally suited to human settlement and comfort thanks to the country’s high altitude. The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), which moves north and south with the Sun, is what causes the precipitation to have a distinct seasonal pattern.
When the ITCZ is at its most southern point in January, the rainy season is at its height; when it moves north in June, the weather is dry. The high temperatures that might be anticipated at this time are lowered by summer rains.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe, also known as the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked nation in southern Africa that was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia (1911–64), Rhodesia (1964–79), or Zimbabwe Rhodesia (1979–80).
Its southern border with the Republic of South Africa is 125 miles (200 km) long. Its other borders are with Botswana to the southwest and west, Zambia to the north, and Mozambique to the northeast and east.
Harare is its capital (formerly called Salisbury). Following a protracted period of colonial rule and 15 years of white-dominated minority rule, instituted after the minority regime’s so-called Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965, Zimbabwe achieved majority rule and internationally recognized independence in April 1980.
Relief
Most of Zimbabwe is located at an elevation of over 300 meters (1,050 feet) above sea level. Its main physical feature is a broad ridge that spans the entire nation for 400 miles from southwest to northeast, from Plumtree near the Botswana border through Gweru and Marandellas to the Inyanga Mountains that divide Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
The eastern highlands of Zimbabwe contain Mount Inyangani, the highest point in Zimbabwe, which is 8,504 feet (2,592 meters) above sea level. This ridge is about 50 miles wide and has an elevation range of 4,000 to 5,000 feet. The Highveld, which makes up about 25% of the country’s total area, is this ridge.
The Lowveld, which makes up about 23% of the entire country, is located beyond this and primarily in the south, where the Sabi, Lundi, and Nuanetsi rivers drain from the plateau into the Limpopo. At a height of 660 feet, close to Dumela, where the Limpopo River empties into Mozambique, is where Zimbabwe’s lowest point is located. Although a region northwest of Plumtree and a significant portion of the Lowveld in the south are extremely arid, there are no areas of Zimbabwe that can legitimately be referred to as a desert.
Drainage and Soil
The middle Zambezi trough was created by significant faulting that ran from the southwest to the northeast and is now partially flooded by the Lake Kariba reservoir. The Sabi (Save) and Limpopo rivers’ depressions were impacted by additional faulting episodes. All of the country’s runoff is transported by these three rivers, via Mozambique, to the Indian Ocean, except for a small internal drainage area in the arid southwest. The main barrier dividing the Limpopo-Sabi drainage from the Zambezi drainage is the Highveld’s central ridgeline.
Climate of Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe, which is entirely within the tropics and is located north of the Tropic of Capricorn, experiences subtropical weather because of its high average elevation. Monsoon winds that have traveled across the Indian Ocean and Mozambique produce heavy orographic rainfall when they encounter the rampart created by the eastern highlands toward the end of the hot, dry months, which last from August to October.
As a result, the eastern regions of Zimbabwe experience heavier rainfall than the rest of the country and a longer rainy season (from October to April). The wide plateau in western Zimbabwe’s highlands helps to ensure good weather there during the region’s cool, dry winter months from May to August.
