The Tugela River (; ) is the largest river in

KwaZulu-Natal Province KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

, South Africa. With a total length of , and a drop of 1370 metres in the lower 480 km, it is one of the most important rivers of the country. The river originates in Mont-aux-Sources of the

Drakensberg The Drakensberg (Zulu language, Zulu: uKhahlamba, Sotho language, Sotho: Maloti, Afrikaans: Drakensberge) is the eastern portion of the Great Escarpment, Southern Africa, Great Escarpment, which encloses the central South Africa#Geography, Sout ...

Mountains at an elevation of 3282 metres This has a very detailed description of the river's course. and plunges in five distinct free-leaping falls 947 metres down the Tugela Falls. The Mont-aux-Sources is also the origin of tributaries of two other major South African rivers, the Orange and the

Caledon River The Caledon River () is a major river located in central South Africa. Its total length is , rising in the Drakensberg Mountains on the Lesotho border, flowing southwestward and then westward before joining the Orange River near Bethulie in the ...

. From the Drakensberg range, the Tugela follows a route through the KwaZulu-Natal midlands before flowing into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. The total catchment area is approximately . Land uses in the catchment are mainly rural subsistence farming and commercial forestry.

Tributaries

The Tugela is fed by a number of tributaries coming off the

, the largest being the Mzinyathi ("Buffalo") River (rising near Majuba Hill). Others are the Little Tugela River, Klip River (rising near Van Reenen Pass), Mooi River, Blood River, Sundays River (rising in the Biggarsberg) Ingagani River and Bushman River. The Buffalo River joins the Tugela some east of Tugela Ferry at . The Blood River was named by the

Boers Boers ( ; ; ) are the descendants of the proto Afrikaans-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Dutch ...

, led by

Andries Pretorius Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus Pretorius (27 November 179823 July 1853) was a leader of the Boers who was instrumental in the creation of the South African Republic, as well as the earlier but short-lived Natalia Republic, in present-day South Africa ...

, after they defeated the Zulu king

Dingane Dingane ka Senzangakhona Zulu (–29 January 1840), commonly referred to as Dingane, Dingarn or Dingaan, was a Zulu prince who became king of the Zulu Kingdom in 1828, after assassinating his half-brother Shaka Zulu. He set up his royal capita ...

on 16 December 1838. The river is said to have run red with the blood of Zulu warriors. Below the Blood River is Rorke's Drift, a crossing point and a battle site, in the

Anglo-Zulu War The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in present-day South Africa from January to early July 1879 between forces of the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Two famous battles of the war were the Zulu victory at Battle of Isandlwana, Isandlwana and th ...

Ecology

The

scaly yellowfish The scaly yellowfish, or KwaZulu-Natal yellowfish, (''Labeobarbus natalensis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. This fish is found in the Tugela River System in South Africa, as well as in the Umzimkulu, Umfolozi and ...

''(Labeobarbus natalensis)'' is found in the Tugela River System. It is a common

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

fish in KwaZulu-Natal Province and it is found in different habitats between the

foothills and the coastal lowlands, including rivers such as the Umkomazi.

Spelling

The spelling ''Tugela'' was used for most of the twentieth century; it is an Anglicised version of the Zulu name ''Thukela''. Nineteenth-century writers adopted a variety of spellings including: * Isaacs (1836) used a number of different spellings in his book, ''Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa,'' including ''Ootergale'' and ''Ootoogale''. * C.R. Maclean (John Ross), writing in the ''Nautical Magazine'' in 1853, used the spelling ''Zootagoola'' *

George French Angas George French Angas (25 April 1822 – 4 October 1886), also known as G.F.A., was an English explorer, naturalist, painter and poet who emigrated to Australia. His paintings are held in a number of important Australian public art collections. ...

, a nineteenth-century artist, used the name ''Tugala'' on the captions to his sketches."Making outchoualla or native beer, at Gudu's kraal, Tugala River, Zulu country"
a sketch by G F Angas; National Library of Australia. Some of the variations can be accounted for by the early European writers being unaware that Zulu grammar uses prefixes, often a "''i-''" or a "''u-''", to denote the noun class of a noun. Tugela river mouth

Notes

External links

{{Authority control

Tugela River The Tugela River (; ) is the largest river in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. With a total length of , and a drop of 1370 metres in the lower 480 km, it is one of the most important rivers of the country. The river originates in M ...

Rivers of KwaZulu-Natal

Tributaries

Ecology

Spelling

See also

Notes

External links