Tugela River

Coordinates: 29°13′26″S 31°30′0″E / 29.22389°S 31.50000°E / -29.22389; 31.50000
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Tugela (disambiguation).
Tugela
Thukela
Colenso
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationDrakensberg
 • coordinates28°45′00″S 28°53′45″E / 28.75000°S 28.89583°E / -28.75000; 28.89583
MouthIndian Ocean
 • coordinates
29°13′26″S 31°30′0″E / 29.22389°S 31.50000°E / -29.22389; 31.50000
Length531 km (330 mi)
Basin size29,100 km2 (11,200 sq mi)
Basin features
Tributaries 
 • left
 • right

The Tugela River (

KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. With a total length of 531 km (330 mi), it is one of the most important rivers of the country.[1]

The river originates in

Mont-aux-Sources of the Drakensberg Mountains at an elevation of almost 11,000 feet[2] and plunges 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. From the Drakensberg range, the Tugela follows a 531 km (330 mi) route through the KwaZulu-Natal midlands before flowing into the Indian Ocean.[3] The total catchment area is approximately 29,100 km2 (11,200 sq mi).[3]
Land uses in the catchment are mainly rural subsistence farming and commercial forestry.

Tributaries

British troops crossing the river during the Second Boer War

The Tugela has a number of tributaries coming off the

Bushman River.[3][4] The Buffalo River joins the Tugela some 19 km (12 mi) east of Tugela Ferry at 28°43′04″S 30°38′41″E / 28.71778°S 30.64472°E / -28.71778; 30.64472
.

The

Rorke's Drift, a crossing point and a battle site, in the Anglo-Zulu War.[2]

Ecology

The

scaly yellowfish (Labeobarbus natalensis) is found in the Tugela River System. It is a common endemic fish in KwaZulu-Natal Province and it is found in different habitats between the Drakensberg foothills and the coastal lowlands, including rivers such as the Umkomazi.[5]

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,[6] including Ootergale and Ootoogale.
  • C.R. Maclean (John Ross), writing in the Nautical Magazine in 1853, used the spelling Zootagoola[7]
  • George French Angas, a nineteenth-century artist, used the name Tugala on the captions to his sketches.[8]

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

See also

  • List of rivers in South Africa
Dams on the Tugela

Notes

  1. ^ "Key rivers of South Africa". MyFundi. Archived from the original on 2012-07-10.
  2. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Tugela" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 364. This has a very detailed description of the river's course.
  3. ^ a b c "Proposal to establishment a Catchment Management Agency for the Thukela Water Management Area - Appendix A" (PDF). Department of Water Affairs and Forestry. July 2004. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
  4. ^ Thukela WMA 7
  5. ^ "Technical Report on the State of Yellowfishes in South Africa 2007" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-06-29. Retrieved 2012-03-29.
  6. ^ Nathaniel Isaacs (1836). Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa - Vol I. Edward Churton. Retrieved 2010-08-08.
  7. ISBN 978-0-869-80851-1
    .
  8. ^ "Making outchoualla or native beer, at Gudu's kraal, Tugala River, Zulu country", a sketch by G F Angas; National Library of Australia.

External links

Media related to Tugela River at Wikimedia Commons

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