On 17 November 1855, Chief Sekeletu of the Makololo tribe guided Dr. Livingstone by canoe to a small island in the Zambezi, then known as Goat Island. Though the river’s waters were low that day, a "tremor of fear" stirred within Livingstone as he drew near the towering wall of mist and spray, sensing the immense power of the falls even from afar. Peering down into the swirling abyss below must have been a breath-stealing moment, one that surely quickened the heart. Today, you too can stand where Livingstone once stood, on what is now called Livingstone Island, reachable from the Zambian side during the dry season. For the daring, a dip in Devil’s Pool awaits—right at the brink of the precipice, where the waters whisper of wonder and dread at the immensity of the scene.

In 1866 David Livingstone, a medical missionary and Victorian-era explorer, embarked a transcontinental expedition across Africa in search of the source of the Nile River. With almost half a decade past in the dark continent without word from his end, The New York Herald charged Henry Stanley with the task of searching out Livingstone. On November 10, 1871 Stanley found Livingstone in an African village with the immortal introduction: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"