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World's highest waterfall - Angel Falls. |
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Angel Falls is located in the Guayana highlands, one of five topographical regions of Venezuela. It plunges off the edge of a "tepuy", or table-top mountain. Named "Auyantepui", the Angel Falls mesa is one of over a hundred of its kind which are scattered about the Guiana Highlands of southeast Venezuela. Like so many slumbering giants, what characterizes these mesas (Tepuys) is their massive heights soaring up towards the sky, each with a flat top and totally vertical sides (check out the picture at left). Also called "table mountains" (which accurately describes their shapes) these Tepuys were formed out of sandstone billions of years ago. Their vertical sides are continually being eroded by the action of water from the heavy rainfall the Guiana Highlands gets.
Jimmy Angel was flying over the area in 1935 when he landed on the top of a lone mountain in search of gold. His plane got stuck in the boggy jungle on top of the mountain and he noticed a pretty impressive waterfall plunging thousands of feet down. He wasn't too happy about the 11 mile hike back to civilization, and his plane remained stuck and rusting upon the mountain as a monument to his discovery. Soon the whole world would know about the falls, which came to be known as Angel Falls, after the pilot who "discovered" them.
The fascinating world of the National park in Canaima, is a perfect combination of magic and reality, with their impressive table top mountains called tepuy's, their countless rivers, lagoons, and water falls, forests and savannas distributed as a green sea, this atmosphere calls for a unique visit at least once in a lifetime. In this God's gift of the nature, you will find an interesting flora and fauna and endemic in many cases (unique in the World), likewise the natives of the Pemon Indians, cohabitant in this natural atmosphere, with their ancestral culture, craft, folklore, and gastronomy.
The park, possesses 3 million Hectares, occupying this way the second protected natural area of more extension in Venezuela and the seventh of its size in the world.
The western area called Canaima, can be accessed by air with commercial Flights from Caracas, Margarita and Ciudad Bolivar. Enjoying this privileged spot on earth, the tallest fall in the world, the incredible Angel Falls, from the lagoon of Canaima visualizes a spectacular scenario, with beautiful water falls inviting you for a refreshing swim or a sun bath on the beautiful white sand surrounding the Canaima Lagoon. In the Eastern area you will find the Gran Sabana where again, can be accessed either by air but also by land transport. Arriving to sacred Elena of Uairen, the last town of the south of Venezuela, with only 20 minutes to the frontier of Brazil. www.salto-angel.com
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Angel
Falls or Salto Angel is the world's highest free-falling waterfall
at 979 meters (3,212 feet). It is located on the Carrao River
in Venezuela, in South America. The Carrao River is a tributary
of the Caroni river. The Caroni River eventually joins the Orinoco.
It is difficult to visit the Falls because they are in dense rainforest.
There are no roads leading up to the waterfall.
The
Natives in Venezuela had known about the "Salto Angel" since the
beginning of time. Although first sighted in the early 20th century
by the explorer Ernesto de Santa Cruz, they were not known to
the world until their official discovery by the American aviator,
James Crawford Angel, on a flight whilst searching for gold. Angel
was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1899.
Jimmy's
Flamingo monoplane settled down into the marshy ground on top
of the Auyantepuy and remained there for 33 years before being
lifted out by a helicopter. Jimmy Angel's plane sits in the Aviation
Museum in Maracay; the one you may be able to see on top of the
tepuy is a replica.
The
official height was determined by a National Geographic Society
survey in 1949 (see Jungle Journey to the World's Highest Waterfall
by Ruth Robinson). Angel Falls is the highest waterfall
in the world. It is 979 meters tall. The Falls are nearly
twice as tall as the CN Tower, the world's tallest building. The
Falls are 20 times higher than the Niagara Falls. Angel Falls
is a cataract waterfall. The great cataract (longest section)
is 882 meters in length. David Mott's book, Angels Four, chronicles
the first successful climb up the face of Ayan Tepui (Devil's
Mountain) to the top of the falls. The falls are Venezuela's top
tourist attraction.
This
natural mosaic shows us an interesting and alive testimony of
our Geographical history. The national park Canaima is located
to the end south west of Venezuela, to the south of the river
Orinoco, municipality Gran Sabana of the state Bolivar, being
decreed National park June 12, 1962 by the national executive.
The
park is divided in two sectors: Western and Eastern.