Zambia

Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered to the north by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania to the northeast, Malawi to the east, Mozambique to the southeast, Zimbabwe and Botswana to the south, Namibia to the southwest, and Angola to the west. The capital city of Zambia is Lusaka, located in the south-central part of Zambia.

Did you know that:
1. The Broken Hill skull (or Kabwe 1), found in 1921 in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), is a crucial, near-complete fossil of the archaic human species Homo heidelbergensis. The skull is approximately (299,000 - 25,000) years old.

2. Zambia has one of the world's fastest-growing populations, with UN projections indicating the population could triple from roughly 13 million in 2011 to around 40–100 million by 2050. This rapid growth is driven by high fertility rates, often averaging six children per woman, with the population set to remain one of the youngest in the world.

3. In Zambia, it’s possible to see the celebrated ‘big five’ game animals of lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and buffalo.

4. Zambia is a highly multilingual country with over 70 identified indigenous languages, although many of these are classified as dialects, bringing the number of distinct languages down to around 40-70, depending on definitions.

5. Zambia is home to the UNESCO-listed Victoria Falls in Mosi-oa-Tunya National Park – the world’s largest curtain of falling water. The falls span the entire breadth of the Zambezi River at more than 1,700m wide and drop approximately 108m. Zambia shares the falls with Zimbabwe.

6. Zambia is home to the near-blind species of Ansell’s mole-rats which can sense magnetic fields with their eyes according to a recent study. The mole-rats also live in complex underground tunnel systems of up to 2.8km (1.7mi) long.

7. Zambia is a global leader in emerald production, holds major records for large, high-quality emeralds discovered at the Kagem mine, including the newly discovered 11,685-carat "Imboo" (2025) and the formerly world-record 7,525-carat "Chipembele" (2021).