3 Main Relief levels of Zambia

Relief refers to how high or low the land in different parts of an area is. Physical features are natural features such as mountains, rivers, streams, swamps, hills, highlands, islands and some lakes.
Mountains are at higher levels, while valleys or plains are at lower levels.

We describe relief by how many metres above sea level an area is. Sea level is the lowest level along the coastal areas of continents. To understand the relief of Zambia, it helps to first understand the general relief of the African continent, as explained in the box below.

Relief of the African Continent

• Most of Africa consists of a higher, fairly level central part which is called a plateau. Most of the land on the plateau in the southern, central and eastern parts of Africa is more than 2000 metres above sea level.
• Around the edge of this large central plateau, the rest of the continent is mostly consists of an area that drops down from 2000 metres to 250 metres above sea level.
• Around the coast of the continent, there is usually a narrow coastal strip that is less than 250 metres above sea level.
• Higher mountain ranges and mountain peaks rise up above these levels in some parts of the continent.
• A larger numbers of rivers start from the highest part of the plateau. As smaller streams join up to form larger rivers, the rivers create deep, lower areas called valleys as they flow down towards lakes or the sea.

Relief of Zambia

• Zambia does not have a coastal area as it lies in the central part of the continent, surrounded by other countries. Most of the land in the country lies 900 metres or more above sea level.
• The relief of Zambia can be divided into three main levels: Land over 1200 meters, land between 900 and 1200 meters and land below 900 meters.

Land over 1200 metres above sea level

• The highest parts of Zambia, also known as the highlands or Highveld, form a natural boundary with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the north, and continue as a natural boundary with Malawi and Tanzania in the northeast.
• The highest parts are the Mbala highlands, Mafinga hills and Makutu Mountains.
• Almost all the major rivers in the country have their sources on these highlands.

The highlands are divided into two clear areas that are also called divides or watersheds. These watersheds separate waters flowing in different directions to rivers, lakes or seas:

1. The Zambezi-Congo watershed forms a natural boundary between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This watershed separates the conga river system (flowing towards the DRC) from the Zambezi river system (flowing towards Zambia), and the tributaries that feed into each of these two river systems.

2. The Luangwa- Malawi watershed forms a natural boundary between Zambia and Malawi. It separates the Luangwa river system in Zambia and the Shrine River system in Malawi.

Land between 900 metres and 1200 metres above sea level

• This area, also known as the middle veld, is a large, flat plateau with smaller hills that gently rise and fall.
• This plateau makes up the largest part of the country.
• Many of the swamps and lakes that are part of the drainage system of Zambia also lie in the plateau.

Land below 900 metres above sea level

• This area, also known as the low veld, consists of deep valleys formed by larger rivers, such as the Zambezi, Luangwa and Luapula.
• As smaller streams join together to form larger rivers, the erosion caused by the force of large volumes of water flowing downwards from the plateau create these valleys.
• Another low-lying area is the basin around Lake Tanganyika, which forms part of the series of low-lying lakes of the East African Rift Valley. You will find out more about how this lake was formed in the section on drainage systems later in this sub-topic.
• Along the edges of these valleys there are long, steep slopes called escarpments, which are broken up by the smaller valleys of tributaries flowing into the larger rivers.
• The main escarpments are the Muchinga and Zambezi escarpments.

Map showing the three main relief levels of Zambia,