Geographys
Play
Support Geographys

Kazungula

World maps show four countries, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, meeting at a single point in the Zambezi. Zoom in and there are two meeting points, about 135–150 metres apart, and between them a tiny Botswana–Zambia border, now crossed by a bridge that curves to avoid the other two countries.

Written from cited sourcesLast checked 2 October 2026Suggest a correction

ZAMBIABOTSWANANAMIBIAZIMBABWEKazungula
Zambia and Botswana shaded, meeting Namibia and Zimbabwe at Kazungula. At this scale the two tripoints, 135–150 m apart, look like one point.

See it on the globe:Zambia →Botswana →Namibia →Zimbabwe →

Four countries, almost

On world maps, one spot in the middle of the Zambezi is the only place where four countries meet: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia. Look closely and it splits into two tripoints, one where Botswana and Zambia meet Namibia and one where they meet Zimbabwe, about 135 metres apart.[1] A fact-check by Dubawa puts the gap at about 150 metres and says the four states agreed during the bridge negotiations that Botswana and Zambia share a short border there.[2]

Namibia is only here at all because of the Caprivi Strip, a panhandle named after the German chancellor who obtained it in 1890 so that German South West Africa could reach the Zambezi. He hoped the river would be navigable to the Indian Ocean, but Victoria Falls, about 70 km downstream, blocks it.[1]

A ferry worth fighting over

If the four countries did meet at a single point, Botswana and Zambia would have no border of their own, and any crossing between them would pass the other two. When Zambia and Botswana started a ferry across the 400-metre-wide river in 1970, South Africa, which then controlled Namibia, and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, protested on exactly those grounds, and the Rhodesian army later sank the ferry.[2] South Africa declared the ferry illegal, which led to an armed confrontation in 1970.[1]

The argument outlived those governments. When Zambia and Botswana announced a bridge in 2007, Zimbabwe’s transport minister said there was no direct border between them; most of their trade went through Zimbabwe and was taxed there.[2] Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe pulled out of the project, fearing for the tolls on that traffic.[1]

A bridge with a bend

Work started in 2014, Namibia and Zimbabwe joined the project in 2018, and the bridge opened on 10 May 2021.[2] It is 923 metres long, with two lanes each way, a single railway track and footpaths, and cost $259 million. It curves gently for no structural reason: the bend keeps it from touching Namibia on one side and Zimbabwe on the other.[1]

The real thing has existed once. For eight months in 1960–61, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and the British territory of Northern Cameroons met at one point in Lake Chad, until Nigeria absorbed Northern Cameroons.[2]

Timeline

  1. 1890

    Caprivi Strip

    Germany obtains a strip reaching the Zambezi.[1]

  2. 1970

    Ferry

    Zambia and Botswana start a ferry; South Africa and Rhodesia object.[2][1]

  3. 2007

    Bridge announced

    Zimbabwe says Botswana and Zambia have no border here.[2]

  4. 2014

    Construction begins

    Work on the Kazungula Bridge starts.[2]

  5. 2018

    Four partners

    Namibia and Zimbabwe join the project.[2]

  6. 202110 May 2021

    Bridge opens

    The curved bridge crosses the short border.[2][1]

More map oddities

Sources

  1. [1]
  2. [2]

Map geometry from Natural Earth via world-atlas. See credits.

Know a better source? Send a link for any fact on this page.
Primary sources (treaties, court rulings, official records) help most.