Mana Pools

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Mana Pools National Park, Sapi and Chewore Safari Areaa
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Zambezi River from Mana Pools
State Party Flag of Zimbabwe Zimbabwe
Type Natural
Criteria vii, ix, x
Identification #302
Regionb Africa

Inscription History

Formal Inscription: 1984
8th Session

a Name as officially inscribed on the WH List
b As classified officially by UNESCO

Mana Pools is a wildlife conservation area in Western Zimbabwe constituting a National Park. It is a region of the lower Zambezi River in Zimbabwe where the flood plain turns into a broad expanse of lakes after each rainy season. As the lakes gradually dry up and recede, the region attracts many large animals in search of water, making it one of Africa's most renowned game-viewing regions.

Mana means ‘four’ in Shona, in reference to the four large permanent pools formed by the meanderings of the middle Zambezi. These 2,500 square kilometres of river frontage, islands, sandbanks and pools, flanked by forests of mahogany, wild figs, ebonies and baobabs, is one of the least developed National Parks in Southern Africa. It was saved from a hydro-electric scheme in the early eighties which would have seen the flooding of this subsequent World Heritage site. It has the country’s biggest concentration of hippopotamuses and crocodiles and large dry season mammal populations of elephant and buffalo.

Coordinates: 15°45′S, 29°20′E