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The Big Tree - one of the best-known trees in the world - is a huge Boabab of the species ''Adansonia digitata'' in Zimbabwe, close to the Victoria Falls. It has sometimes been called Livingstone's tree erroneously. Unusually for a Boabab it has both an impressive girth and is very tall. It measures 22.40 metres in girth (2004) and is 24 metres tall (1985). The explorer and missionary David Livingstone who discovered the Victoria Falls for the British Empire (naming the Falls for his queen) carved his name in 1855 into a Boabab tree on an island (Garden Island) above the precipice of the well known waterfalls that is now an international tourist attraction. Big tree is in fact roughly 2 km from the river, the falls and the island where Livingstone arrived in a 'makoro' dugout canoe made landfall and wrote his records. Apart from being the best known this impressive tree is possibly the oldest and biggest Boabab in Zimbabwe. Some as impressive, or more impressive trees were sadly lost under the flooding further downstream that occurred once Kariba Dam wall was finished in 19566. Unlike the animals rescued and saved by Operation Noah during the flooding the trees had to stay where they were, many were bulldozed so they would not become underwater hazards. Big Tree may be about 2000 yrs old using estimates from its girth and growth ring data collected from other trees under Rhodesian rule. However it is deeply incised and there is speculation that it is three tree trunks ( or trees) and it may be considerably younger. ==Conservation== Big tree is protected by Museums and National Monuments of Zimbabwe under whose jurisdiction it falls (not National Park of Zimbabwe). Over previous years Name-carvers have left their mark on the tree but the tree is now protected from these vandals by a fence 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Big Tree at Victoria Falls」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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