The 976 kilometer (607 mile) land boundary between Malawi and Zambia was first established as an internal British colonial border in the late nineteenth century. The frontier runs generally north-to-south, roughly following the drainage divide between the Zambezi River and Lake Malawi/Lake Nyasa. It was only delimited in rather general terms during the colonial period. After independence, Malawi and Zambia created a Joint Survey Commission to address the lack of a detailed boundary definition. Bilateral demarcation efforts were completed in 2011, and the two States maintain an active demarcation commission with occasional new boundary survey efforts.