Historically, the first white man believed to have discovered the caves was Frederick Selous, the famous European hunter, during his wanderings in 1887.

The traditional name for the caves is “Chirorodziva” which means the “Pool of the Fallen”. The name was derived from an incident which took place in the 1830s when the Angoni Tribe, who were moving northwards, surprised people living near the caves and flung them into the pool.