Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas
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How it came to be
Mana Pools lies on the middle Zambezi in northern Zimbabwe, bounded by the river to the north and by an escarpment rising more than 1,000 m above the valley floor to the south. Mana means four in Shona, after four large pools left by the river's meanders. The pools are old river channels that fill like lakes after each rainy season and shrink as the dry months go on.
In the dry winter, herds of elephant and buffalo come to the riverside grassland for water, followed by zebra, waterbuck, lion and hyena. Hippos and Nile crocodiles are plentiful, and birdlife is rich. The national park and the neighbouring Sapi and Chewore Safari Areas were inscribed together in 1984.
At inscription the area held about 500 black rhinos and was one of the most important refuges for them in Africa. Poaching cut their number to ten by the end of 1994, and the survivors were moved elsewhere for safety. The Kariba Dam upstream has changed the river's flow, and a dam proposed in the Mupata Gorge remains a concern.
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