of the Kuando (Chobe) River (centre left) and the Zambezi River at Kazungula (map, 9) looking west, at Africa's "four corners", where Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana meet The Cuando rises in the central
plateau of
Angola on the slopes of
Mount Tembo, thence flowing southeast along the
Zambian border. Along this reach it flows in a maze of channels in a swampy corridor 5–10 km wide (map 1: the border with Zambia is the eastern bank of this floodplain, not the river channel). As with all rivers in south-central Africa, its flow varies enormously between the rainy season when it floods and may be several kilometres wide, and the dry season when it may disappear into marshes. The Cuando continues in its marshy channel across the neck of the
Caprivi Strip of
Namibia (map, 2) and then forms the border between Namibia and Botswana as it continues southeast. Some 10,000 years ago, the Cuando merged with the
Okavango River and they flowed south to
Lake Makgadikgadi (which is a seasonal
wetland in current times), but the land in that area was
uplifted. As a consequence the Cuando now meets slightly higher ground (map, 4) and breaks up into many channels and swamps (called the Linyanti Swamp) dotted with alluvial islands, nearly disappearing into the
Kalahari sands like the Okavango (map, 5). But instead it has diverted east and has been
captured by the Zambezi. The flow turns sharply east, still forming the border with
Botswana. In the dry season there are few open channels through the swamps and marshes. Beginning at this point it is known as the Linyanti (map, 6), and after it flows through a seasonal lake,
Lake Liambesi (map, 7), it is called the Chobe (map, 8). The river then flows into the
Zambezi just above the former
Kazungula Ferry (map, 9), now replaced by the
Kazungula Bridge. In years when the Okavango experiences a good flood some of the water escapes east along the normally dry channel of the Magwekwana River (also known as Selinda Spillway) into the Linyanti Swamp, thus entering the Zambezi basin. The Selinda Spillway and the
Boteti River are the only outlets of the
Okavango basin. On the north side of the Chobe River are the Caprivi Swamps, on the edge of which is the ruined capital of the
Kololo people who conquered
Barotseland in the 19th century. So much of the water of the Cuando, Linyanti and Chobe is lost to evaporation in the various swamps that its contribution to the flow of the Zambezi is very small except in occasional years when it floods excessively. The perennial
river bifurcation of Selinda Spillway (or Magweggana River), on the Cuando River, connects the
Kalahari Basin to the
Zambezi Basin. ==Wildlife==