Lusaka

Sister cities

• Los Angeles
• Dushanbe
• Izhevsk
• Kigali
• Białystok

History

The earliest evidence of settlement in the area around what is now the Lusaka area dates to the 6th century. The first known village dates to around the 11th century, a settlement of round huts close to the modern suburb of Olympia. The subsequent centuries saw considerable fluctuation of people in the area, until the arrival of the Lenje and Soli peoples in the 17th or 18th century. The Soli are believed by scholars to have arrived as part of the Luba migration along the Luapula River, while the Lenje are related to the . Modern Lusaka lies on the boundary of the territories of the two groups, with the Lenje inhabiting the region to the north of the city and the Soli to the south. In the 19th century, African and European slave traders began arriving from the coastal regions of modern-day Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola, enslaving members of the Soli and Lenje communities for shipment to the Middle East, Europe and South America. The need to evade these attacks as well as their use of a shifting-cultivation farming system, necessitated frequent relocation amongst the Soli and Lenje, and there were, therefore, no major permanent settlements. In the late 19th century, British–South African mining entrepreneur and politician Cecil Rhodes founded the British South African Company (BSAC), with a charter from Queen Victoria to colonise and develop land in sections of what is now northern South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and Botswana. The BSAC took formal control of the region around Lusaka through the protectorate of Barotziland–North-Western Rhodesia, named after Rhodes, in 1899. The capital was initially at Kalomo, being switched to Livingstone in 1907. This was merged in 1911 with the territory of North-Eastern Rhodesia to form Northern Rhodesia, predecessor of…

Geography

The Zambian terrain consists mainly of a high-altitude plateau, with some hills and mountains. Lusaka is located on the plateau, in south-central Zambia at 15°25′S 28°17′E, with an altitude of . It is located north east of the tourism capital, Livingstone, and from Kitwe on the Copperbelt, Zambia's second-largest city. Mpulungu, the most distant major Zambian town from Lusaka, lies away on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. The city of Lusaka is coterminous with Lusaka District, and is the capital of Lusaka Province, which is Zambia's smallest but most populated province. Lusaka District borders Chilanga District to the west and south, Kafue District to the south-east and Chongwe District to the east, all in Lusaka Province. It also borders Chibombo District to the north. To the west of Cairo Road there are two major markets, the Central Market and New City Market. East of the CBD lies the government area, which include the State House and the various ministries, around Cathedral Hill and Ridgeway neighbourhoods. East of there, along Independence Avenue, lies Woodlands, which is the principal residential area for Lusaka's rich elite, as well as wealthy expatriates. The wealthy suburbs of Ibex Hill and Rhodes Park are also situated in the east of the city, with Makeni to the south. Overlooking Arcades is the Sun Share Tower on Katima Mulilo Road near the Radisson Blu hotel. The 58-metre-high Tower was launched in 2017 by Sun Share Ltd. Monuments and national symbols in Lusaka include the National Museum, government buildings around the CBD, the African Freedom statue and a memorial to the victims of the 1993 Zambia national football team plane crash, located at the National Heroes Stadium. Primarily due to its high altitude, Lusaka features a subtropical monsoon…

Most-observed species

• Common Bulbul

  Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines, 1789) · Aves
  2,033
• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  1,410
• Red-eyed Dove

  Streptopelia semitorquata (Rüppell, 1837) · Aves
  1,403
• Southern Cordonbleu

  Uraeginthus angolensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,334
• Variable Sunbird

  Cinnyris venustus (Shaw, 1799) · Aves
  1,202
• Black-collared Barbet

  Lybius torquatus (Dumont, 1805) · Aves
  1,167
• Tropical Boubou

  Laniarius major (Hartlaub, 1848) · Aves
  1,129
• White-browed Robin-Chat

  Cossypha heuglini Hartlaub, 1866 · Aves
  1,127

Most recent

• M 3.9 — 2017-11-02
  12 km NW of Chongwe, Zambia
• M 4.6 — 2016-01-09
  40 km SE of Kafue, Zambia
• M 4.5 — 2007-02-03
  11 km W of Chirundu, Zimbabwe