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Great East Road: Difference between revisions
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Eventually the Northern Rhodesian authorities needed a better road to assert their control over the Eastern Province, and the '''first Great East Road''' was built in 1932 from the [[Great North Road, Zambia|Great North Road]] at the small [[railway town]] of [[Lusaka]] (Livingstone was still the capital, and this junction of the 'Great Roads' together with the main north-south railway contributed to the decision to site the capital in Lusaka in 1935).<ref>Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia'', Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.</ref> | Eventually the Northern Rhodesian authorities needed a better road to assert their control over the Eastern Province, and the '''first Great East Road''' was built in 1932 from the [[Great North Road, Zambia|Great North Road]] at the small [[railway town]] of [[Lusaka]] (Livingstone was still the capital, and this junction of the 'Great Roads' together with the main north-south railway contributed to the decision to site the capital in Lusaka in 1935).<ref>Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia'', Camerapix International Publishing, Nairobi, 1996.</ref> | ||
==Route geography== | |||
The [[Eastern Province, Zambia|Eastern Province]] is a narrow slice of land sandwiched between Mozambique and Malawi to its south and east, and the [[Luangwa River|Luangwa Valley]], world-famous for [[South Luangwa National Park|its wildlife]], to the north-west, which no highways cross. Apart from a bush track over the highlands in the far north of the province, a narrow neck of land in the west became the only way in from or out to the rest of Zambia, and as the only highway to cross it, the Great East road is strategically vulnerable.<ref name="ITM"/> This neck is cut by the lower Luangwa River making a turn due south to the [[Zambezi]], in a narrow and deep valley with steep slopes and thick vegetation, amounting in some sections to a gorge. The river is 250 to 400 m wide in this area, and flows quite fast, with a huge variation according to season. | |||
==The route and its branches== | |||
Crossing the steep terrain of the lower Luangwa valley was a major challenge. The 1929 track was usually closed in the rainy season, and so the first [[Luangwa Bridge]] was built in 1932 with funding from the [[Alfred Beit|Beit Trust]]. On the eastern side, once the road had climbed up the difficult terrain onto the Luangwa-Zambezi [[Water divide|watershed]] at [[Nyimba]], [[Petauke]], and [[Katete]], the going is easier.<ref name="NRJ"/> [[Chipata]] is reached 605 km from Lusaka and the road goes on to the [[Malawi]]an border 20 km further on, where it connects via [[Mchinji]] to the Malawian capital of [[Lilongwe]], just 90 km from Chipata.<ref name="ITM"/> | |||
In addition to its east-west Lusaka-Malawi axis, the Great East Road links north to [[Lundazi]], north-west to the [[South Luangwa National Park]], south-east to Mozambique, and, in [[Lusaka Province]], south to the [[Lower Zambezi National Park]] and the town of [[Luangwa (town)|Luangwa]] at the Luangwa-Zambezi river confluence. In the 1960s the Great East road was paved, opening up the Luangwa Valley (and to some extent, [[Lake Malawi]]) to tourism.<ref name="ITM"/> At times the surface has deteriorated considerably. The section between Katete and the Luangwa Bridge was repaired and reconstructed around 2002/3. | |||
==Strategic significance== | |||
As well as being strategically vulnerable as described above, the Great East Road is within a few kilometres of Mozambique and a few tens of kilometres of Zimbabwe, where there were [[War of independence (disambiguation)|wars of independence]] in the 1960s and 1970s. As a result of Zambia's political support for the [[apartheid|anti-apartheid]] and [[African independence movements|independence]] sides in these conflicts, armed incursions cut the road at the [[Luangwa Bridge]] — see that topic for further details. | |||
==References== | |||
<references/> | |||
{{coord|15.40505|S|28.29977|E|type:landmark_region:ZM_dim:1000|display=title}} | |||
[[Category:Transport in Zambia]] | |||
[[Category:Roads in Zambia]] | |||
