Chirinda Forest and the Big Tree

Chirinda Forest and the Big Tree

Big Tree (or The Big Tree in Chirinda Forest) is the tallest native or indigenous tree in Zimbabwe, and a declared National Monument. The tree was 65 m tall and measured 4.5 m in diameter, while its age is estimated at 1,000 years or over.

Why Visit

• The districts of Melsetter and Chipinga have the finest natural timber in Rhodesia, and in a corner of Chipinga, close to the Portuguese border, stand the strange forest of Chirinda on the slopes of Mount Silinda in south-eastern Zimbabwe.
• The Chirinda Forest Reserve covers about 950 hectares of primary evergreen forest. It is one of the larger protected forest areas in the country with a unique combination of tropical and subtropical vegetation species and is the remains of a once extensive forest which covered this area in a previous era with a hotter, wetter climate.
• A walk in this beautiful forest with a visit to the big Tree is highly recommended, it feels like the Bunga Forest Botanical Reserve except the trees are much bigger and older and the Forest canopy that much higher

Zimbabwe Scenic Sites