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 Tugela Falls (uThukela in Zulu) is a complex of seasonal waterfalls located in the Drakensberg (''Dragon's Mountains'') of Royal Natal National Park in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Republic of South Africa. According to some measurements, it is the ...

. The Mont-aux-Sources is also the origin of tributaries of two other major South African rivers, the

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

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 Little is a synonym for small size and may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Little'' (album), 1990 debut album of Vic Chesnutt * ''Little'' (film), 2019 American comedy film *The Littles, a series of children's novels by American author John P ...

, Klip River (rising near

Van Reenen Pass A van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries. The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or p ...

), Mooi River, Blood River,

Sundays River The !Khukaǁgamma or Sundays River () is a river in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is said to be the fastest flowing river in the country. The Inqua Khoi people, who historically were the wealthiest group in Southern Africa, orig ...

(rising in the Biggarsberg) Ingagani River and

Bushman River The Bushman's River () is an east to north-easterly flowing tributary of the Tugela River, in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. It rises in the Drakensberg Mountain range, with its upper catchment in the Giant's Castle Game Reserve, ...

. The Buffalo River joins the Tugela some east of

Tugela Ferry Tugela Ferry is a town on the northern bank of the Tugela River, in central KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. During the apartheid era it formed part of the KwaZulu homeland, and at present it is included in the Umzinyathi District Municipality. The ...

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 The King of the Zulu Nation (IsiZulu: ''Isilo Samabandla Onke'' or ''Ingonyama yamaZulu'') or simply the Zulu King, is the paramount subnational traditional leader of the amaZulu ethnolinguistic group, the Monarch of the KwaZulu-Natal province ...

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 The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also known as the Defence of Rorke's Drift, was an engagement in the Anglo-Zulu War. The successful British defence of the mission station of Rorke's Drift, under the command of Lieutenants John Chard of the Royal E ...

, 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