Lesotho Waterfall

Maletsunyane Falls

A 192 m drop.

When to go

Graham Maclachlan · CC BY-SA 3.0

In numbers.

192m

Height

1.0m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Dec–Mar

Best months

1.9MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Maletsunyane Falls, month by month

It roars from December to March.

The fullest months: from December to March. The thinnest: from May to September.

2.2 m³/sJan
2.1 m³/sFeb
1.8 m³/sMar
1.3 m³/sApr
0.6 m³/sMay
0.3 m³/sJun
0.2 m³/sJul
0.3 m³/sAug
0.4 m³/sSep
0.9 m³/sOct
1.4 m³/sNov
1.8 m³/sDec

high water best months to go

From about 0.21 m³/s in the lowest month to 2.2 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from December to March.

Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall on the Maletsunyane River in Lesotho

Maletsunyane Falls is a waterfall in Lesotho. The water falls 192 m.

Getting there.

Semonkongnearest town · 2.8 km in a straight line
Parking 980 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
Moshoeshoe I International Airport (MSU)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 66 km in a straight lineCar hire at MSU airport (Maseru)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
From December to Marchbest months to go (estimate)

Plan your visit

Stay, explore and get there

Car hire at MSU airport (Maseru)Discover CarsSee

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

1.9 MW

About 1.0 m³/s falling 192 m: the power of the water as it drops.

enough to power about 486 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Maletsunyane Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2)

N 2 km

ViewpointsParkingOther fallsCampsites

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The river through the falls

The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.

The valley below the falls

Around the falls the river drops 282 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 115 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

7viewpointsMaletsunyane Falls, Maletsunyane Falls View, Maletsunyane Falls View Point and 4 more
—waymarked walking routes
1car parks
—swimming spots
—picnic sites
—toilets
—information boards and visitor centres
—bus stops within 1 km
1other named waterfalls within 4 kmBoala-Thapo Falls
—caves
1campsitesSemongkong Lodge
—hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 km
—restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

Semonkong2.8 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Afternoon °C	25	23	22	18	14	11	11	14	19	22	23	24
Night °C	11	10	8	4	1	-2	-3	-1	2	6	7	10
Rain & snow (mm)	121	102	81	55	19	17	13	25	23	67	86	106
Wet days	20	18	16	9	4	3	2	4	5	11	14	19
Sun h/day	9.2	8.7	8.5	8.3	8.8	8.9	9.4	9.5	10.2	9.8	10.0	9.6
Snow on the ground (cm)	0	0	0	0	1	4	4	3	2	1	0	0

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,134 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

LWR2013 - panoramio (75) — Graham Maclachlan · CC BY-SA 3.0

Recent years

Wet years and dry years

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
2020	93%	119%	91%	181%	5%	5%	33%	10%	103%	115%	139%	96%
2021	181%	65%	35%	66%	35%	181%	2,706%	177%	260%	104%	71%	140%
2022	75%	73%	131%	323%	140%	51%	222%	67%	173%	108%	129%	171%
2023	80%	133%	78%	42%	538%	84%	122%	71%	92%	114%	57%	194%
2024	65%	24%	63%	143%	2%	216%	7%	27%	286%	95%	127%	73%
2025	54%	66%	330%	285%	30%	268%	215%	85%	201%	77%	132%	105%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Maletsunyane Falls

Lesotho

192 mHeight
1.0 m³/sAverage flow
Dec–MarBest months

Tugela Falls

South Africa

948 mHeight
—Average flow
Dec–MarBest months

See the guide

Howick Falls

South Africa

—Height
—Average flow
Nov–FebBest months

See the guide

Magwa Falls

South Africa

142 mHeight
0.77 m³/sAverage flow
Mar, Nov–JanBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, river	Wikidata (Q37683) · CC0
River flow and catchment	HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
Climate	NASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D model	Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking	© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
Images	EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.