Salto Angel Waterfall

Salto Angel Fall

Country: Venezuela
Location: Canaima National park
River: Gauja (Rio Gauya), tributary of Rio Churún. The last in turn is tributary of Rio Caroni. The name - Gauja - to the river has been given by Latvian Alejandro Laime, who was the first to reach this waterfall by land. The other Gauja river is located in Latvia - in fact it is among the most beautiful rivers of Latvia. Often there is made mistake by telling that this waterfall is on Rio Churún.
Height: 979 m
Other information: At the lower part the waterfall is 150 m wide. Europeans discovered the waterfall in 1935. Waterfalls is named after James Angel - American adventurer, who had to make an emergency landing with his plane nearby in 1937.

         Angel Fall is highest fall in the world. It plunges 3,212 feet, with the longest single drop of 2,648 feet (979m/807m) from the top of a mesa, or what the natives call a Tepuyi. 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.