Angel Falls (Spanish) Angel) or Salto Angel (Spanish) Salto Angel) is the world's tallest free-falling waterfall, 978 meters high. R It is located in the mountainous region of Guyana, one of the five topographic regions of Venezuela. It is located on the Carrao River. The Carrao River is a tributary of the Caroni River, which eventually flows into the Orinoco. Getting to the waterfall is not easy as it is located in a dense tropical forest. There are no roads leading to the waterfall.
The waterfall cascades from the top of a flat mountain called tepui by the aborigines. The flat mountain called Auyan Tepuy (Devil's Mountain) is one of more than a hundred similar ones scattered across the Guiana Highlands in southeastern Venezuela. These giants are characterized by their massive heights that soar into the sky, with flat tops and completely vertical sides. Tepuis, also called "table mountains" (which accurately describes their shape), were formed from sandstone billions of years ago. Their vertical slopes are continuously destroyed under the influence of heavy rains falling on the Guiana Highlands.
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The Indians of Venezuela have known about "Salto Angel" since time immemorial. The falls were originally discovered in 1910 by a Spanish explorer named Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz. However, it was not known to the world until its official discovery by American aviator and gold prospector James Crawford Angel, after whom it was named. Angel was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1899.
This enterprising, experienced pilot, in 1935, flew over the area and landed on the top of a lonely mountain in search of gold. His Flamingo monoplane was stuck in the swampy jungle at the top, and he noticed a rather impressive waterfall extending down thousands of feet. He had little luck on the 11-mile excursion back to civilization, and his plane remained chained to the mountain, a rusting monument to his discovery. Soon the whole world learned about the waterfall, which became known as Angel Falls, in honor of the pilot who discovered it. Jimmy Angel's plane remained in the jungle for 33 years until it was recovered by helicopter. It is currently housed in the Aviation Museum in Maracay. The one you can now see on top of the tepui is its exact copy.
Latin America is extremely popular among tourists. The reason for this is not only the special charm of these places, but also the beauty of untouched nature.
Not far from the border separating Venezuela and Brazil, on the top of a mountain nicknamed “Devil’s” by the Indians, the Churun River flows its waters, fed by tropical showers and originating on one of the slopes of the Guiana Plateau. The uniqueness of this area lies in the accumulation of huge plateaus formed by solidified lava and sandstone. They are called tepuis. They differ from ordinary mountains in shape - their peaks are represented by almost ideal horizontal platforms.
On the largest of these plateaus in Venezuela, called Auyantepui, Angel Falls, recognized as the highest on the planet, originates. The Churun River, whose name is translated from the Pemon language as “thunder,” falls on the plateau, which is the top of Ayantepui (“Devil’s Mountain”), and reaches its cliff, falling down. Before hitting the ground, the stream, spraying into billions of tiny particles of moisture in the air, flies 979 meters, forming a lake at the foot of the mountain.
The mountain on which the waterfall is located was nicknamed the Devil's Mountain by local Indian tribes for a reason, since it is practically all year round shrouded in thick fog. Therefore, it is not surprising that the aborigines firmly believed that tepuis are inhabited by spirits who trade in thefts human souls. They considered this place disastrous and tried in every possible way to stay away from it.
Height
The status of the tallest Angel Falls on the planet is deservedly assigned. The total height of this natural phenomenon, according to official data, is 979 meters, of which 807 are a free continuous fall. The fact is that, reaching the edge of the flat top of the mountain, the streams of the Churun River fall down and fly 807 meters before reaching a wide ledge The tepui, bypassing it, safely overcome another 172 meters.
In some sources you can find information according to which the height of the waterfall is 1054 m. The difference of 75 meters is due to one little-known fact. The fact is that over many years, river flows have partially destroyed the upper edge of the cliff, forming a kind of recess, as a result of which it begins its free fall not from the very edge of the plateau ledge, but about 75 meters below its level.
Flow power
It’s hard to imagine, but the power of Angel, located on the territory National Park Canaima, in the east of Venezuela, allows you to process about 300 m 3 of raging water every second. It is worth noting that such “ throughput» The waterfall can be seen exclusively during the period from May to November, when the wet season comes to South America. It is during the rainy season that the width of the Angel's water stream often exceeds 100 m. In the dry season, the waterfall changes radically, decreasing by best case scenario up to two small streams. During particularly dry periods, it completely turns into a narrow trickle.
Where is the waterfall?
Angel Falls is unusual not only for its parameters, but also for its location. The fact is that it is surrounded by terrain consisting exclusively of flat mountains and impenetrable tropical forest. The riot of pristine nature is, of course, good, but not for tourists who want to see with their own eyes the most high waterfall on the planet.
Since it is surrounded by wild and sparsely populated territories, it is absolutely not surprising that the world society learned about this natural phenomenon relatively recently - in the mid-30s of the twentieth century. The credit for the discovery of the highest waterfall is attributed to the American pilot James Angel, after whom, in fact, it was named, albeit in the Spanish manner.
Since Angel is located literally in the middle of the jungle, where there are no roads or hiking trails, it is considered one of the most inaccessible waterfalls on the planet. Being surrounded on all sides by tens of kilometers of dense tropical forest, it is less likely than others to become an object of study for tourists and travelers. This is a plus, since the nature around him has managed to preserve its virgin beauty. The surroundings of the waterfall are inhabited by many rare animals protected by the Canaima National Park, which was included by UNESCO along with the waterfall in 1994 on the World Heritage List.
How to get to Angel?
Just because Angel Falls is located in the jungle doesn't mean it's impossible to get to. You can do this in two ways:
- by air on a small plane;
- along the river in a canoe.
The nearest large settlement to the waterfall is the city of Ciudat Bolivar, located more than 600 km from it, but the village of Canaima, adjacent to the national park of the same name, is only 50 km away from Angel. You can get to it by plane from Caracas, although there are also tourists who travel to Canaima by canoe from the Orinoco Delta region.
From Canaima Airport, which has several runways, tourists are transported to Angel by air on light aircraft. There is only one alternative to this option - along the river in a motor canoe.
Best time for river excursions and flights to Angel Falls
When giving preference to a sightseeing aerial flight over the waterfall, it is worth considering weather and seasonality. The fact is that with high clouds it is quite problematic to see Angel Falls from a bird's eye view. So, it is best to plan an air excursion to the highest waterfall on Earth during the dry season, although in the period from December to March the flow falling from the cliff is quite scarce.
During the rainy season, traveling by air to the main natural attraction of Venezuela cannot be called a good idea, since it is unlikely that you will be able to enjoy the grandeur and enormity of the river flow falling from the cliff due to the thick fog that shrouds Ayantepui during the wet season.
As for river excursions, then optimal time for them is June-December. There is a lot of water at this time due to the rainy season, so a powerful foaming stream falls from the flat top of the mountain, drowning in a cloud of spray.
Since Angel is located in a specific area, the weather in the Ayantepui area is very unpredictable. Due to the thick fog, tourists are not always able to enjoy the spectacular spectacle of cascading foaming streams of water. Limited visibility can persist for weeks, and sometimes dissipates in a matter of hours. It is almost impossible to get to the waterfall on foot, however, tourists going to Angel by canoe still manage to enjoy the beauty of this place up close, since at the end of the rafting there is a walking route of 3 km.
Entertainment
Angel also attracts desperate thrill-seekers. Extreme tourists visiting Venezuela rarely miss the opportunity to jump from the edge of the Ayantepui plateau on a hang glider or conquer a steep cliff with climbing equipment. Periodically, expeditions are organized in this area, the participants of which hope to make new discoveries, because some corners of the reserve, which is home to the highest waterfall on the planet, have not been explored to this day.
A sparkling, continuous stream of water cascading down from a kilometer-high height is Angel Falls. From the outside it seems like a giant crystal rod, the staff of an unknown giant who leaned it against stone wall table mountain-tepui, left and is in no hurry to return back. At least, this is what one of the legends of the Indian tribe Pemon, who has lived next to the waterfall since time immemorial, tells about the waterfall. And there was a time earlier when another people, whose name has faded into time, worshiped the waterfall as a living creature.
Fateful flight
Angel Falls has been known for a long time, but it was made famous by the American pilot James Angel, who flew over the waterfall, which almost ended in tragedy."
The tallest Angel Falls on earth is located in one of the the most picturesque areas of the Guiana Highlands. The local name for the waterfall is Kerepakupai Meru. There is also an original Indian name given to it by the Pe-Mon tribe - Kerepakupai-Vena, which means “waterfall at the greatest depth.”
Angel falls from Mount Auyan-Te-pui. “Tepui” is what the Indians call the table mountains typical of this area with flat peaks, as if cut off by a giant knife, and vertically rising slopes. Such mountains are found mainly in the territory. Auyan Tepui is one of the highest such mountains, and translated into Russian its name means “mountain of the devil.” Tepuis made of sandstone are witnesses to the process of formation of the current appearance of the Earth. They were formed 200 million years ago, when Africa and South America were still united. Then the tepuis were a whole vast plateau.
If you look at Angel Falls from below, it will seem that the water is falling from the very top of the mountain, although in fact the water flow breaks out of the sandstone layer a hundred meters below. The impression that the water falls in a continuous stream is also deceptive: in reality, Angel Falls is a cascade of two waterfalls with a height of 172 and 807 meters with a total fall height of 979 meters, the total height of Angel is 1054 meters. In terms of the height of the cascade, it ranks first in South America, and in terms of the height of free fall, it ranks first in the world.
It is officially believed that the first European to see the waterfall in 1910 was the traveler Ernesta Sanchez La Cruz. On the other hand, there is also evidence that the waterfall had been seen before by both Spanish conquistadors and Catholic missionary monks.
Be that as it may, the researcher’s discovery went unnoticed, and few people knew about the waterfall until the 1930s, when the American pilot James Crawford Angel (1889 - 1956) flew his G-2-plane. W Flamingo made several flights over Auyan Tepui. In 1937, he tried to land a plane on the top, but an accident occurred and the plane remained on the mountain. Angel himself and his companions had to travel many days through the jungle to reach people. Upon his return, he told the world about the incredibly high waterfall, which was named in his honor: after all, in Spanish, the last name Angel is pronounced as Angel (Angel).
Angel's broken plane remained at the top of the tepuya for the next 33 years, until the Venezuelan government decided to perpetuate the memory of the outstanding flight. In 1970, although not without difficulty, the plane was removed from the top: it was divided into parts and taken by helicopter to Caracas. Further aircraft was restored by the workers of the aviation museum of the city of Maracay and today adorns the entrance to the international airport of Ciudad Bolivar.
According to James Angel's will, after his death in 1960, his ashes were scattered over the tallest waterfall on the planet, named in his honor.
Angel Falls as a cultural value
In the vicinity of Angel Falls, as before, the Pemon Indians live, passing down legends about the waterfall from generation to generation and providing shelter to inquisitive travelers.
Angel Falls is located in the Venezuelan Canaima National Park, on the border with Guyana and Brazil. The park was opened in 1962 and today it is the second largest in the country after Parima Tapi Rapeko Park and the sixth largest in the world. Tepuis are the main attraction of the park, occupying about two-thirds of its area.
The vegetation in the vicinity of the waterfall is typical of this region of South America, where tropical rainforests predominate, but endemic species, mainly from the genus Aster, are also found. Here you can find a giant armadillo, a large three-toed anteater, a puma - the second largest representative of the cat family in America after the jaguar, a two-toed sloth and a unique rat of Mount Roraima, living only in these places. Since people rarely come here, these places are inaccessible, there are practically no roads here, and the few that exist turn into mud flows during the rainy season. The bushmaster, the largest and most timid viper in South America, has taken up residence in the national park.
For those wishing to get to the waterfall, there is not such a wide choice of route. Available means of transport include canoes and small planes that can land on tiny runways built right in the jungle.
Here is the homeland of the Indian tribe Pemon, who still deify te-pui: to the Indians they remind of houses with flat roof, under which “Mawari” live - the spirits of the ancestors of the Pemon tribe.
However, the Pemon were able to turn their proximity to the waterfall to their advantage by serving tourists, for whom they built huts with their own hands.
The Pemon Indians themselves live in the same huts, designed for one family, but some families are so large that the huts are built for fifty people. Since the Pemon have never built roads in the usual sense, they prefer to settle along rivers. The roofs of the houses are made of palm leaves, but with great skill: the leaves fit very tightly to each other, which is important during the heavy rainy season. In villages, houses are usually built in a circle, leaving a meeting area in the center.
The largest city closest to the waterfall is Ciudad Bolivar, the capital of the state of Bolivar, located on the right bank of the main Venezuelan Orinoco River. The name of the city is simply translated as “city of Bolivar” - the national hero of Latin America, after whom thousands on the continent are named settlements. The difference between Ciudad Bolivar and its poor brethren is that it is a river port and a large industrial center. In the vicinity of the city, gold, diamonds and iron ore, and also countless herds of the famous Venezuelan bulls graze. The city itself seems frozen in time - the architecture of all its 77 quarters has remained virtually unchanged since the American War (1810 - 1826) for the independence of the Spanish colonies.
Angel Falls is more than 15 times higher than the famous Niagara Falls.
The height of the fall of the water is so great that the water, before reaching the ground, turns into dust, forming a haze. This humid haze can be felt several kilometers from the waterfall.
A third of all the plants around Angel Falls are found nowhere else in the world.
Since Angel Falls is fed by rain, in the dry season it is a thin trickle, and in the rainy season it is a powerful falling stream.
During the flight, Jimmy Angel was accompanied by his wife Mary. She and her husband had to look for a way down from the tepui and wander through the wild jungle for 11 days.
The steep wall of Auyan Tepui was first conquered in 2005 by an international Anglo-Venezuelo-Russian expedition of mountaineers and rock climbers.
James Angel's eight-seat G-2-W Flamingo was built American company All Metal Aircraft Corporation, long closed. This aircraft was one of 21 aircraft of this model and became the only one that has survived to this day. In 1970, when it was removed from the top of the tepui, it turned out that the batteries were still working and charged. The government of Venezuela declared Angel's plane a national monument.
In 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced the renaming of Angel Falls to Kerepakupai-Meru, combining the original Indian name Kerepakupai-Vena and the word “meru” - waterfall. Subsequently, Chavez said that he would not legitimize the decision to rename the waterfall, since with his statement he only wanted to protect the rights of the Indians to use the historical name.
Jimmy Angel was a very experienced pilot: in his younger years he worked in Charles Lindbergh's Flying Circus as a stunt pilot.
English writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930), choosing a location for fantasy novel about a plateau in the South American jungle, on which dinosaurs have survived to this day, I decided that this region of Venezuela with the tepui mountains was the most suitable. The novel, published in 1912, was called " lost World».
Attractions in the vicinity of the waterfall
Natural:
Canaima National Park, including Mount Roraima lying to the east, Uruyen Cave.
Ethnographic:
Indian village Kavak.
City of Ciudad Bolivar:
James Angel G-2-W Flamingo, Paseo Orinoco, Simon Bolivar Square with the Simon Bolivar Monument, Cathedral Archdiocese of Ciudad Bolivar, Museum contemporary art Jesus Soto, San Isidro Museum, Casa Del Congreso De Angostura (Congress Building), El Palacio De Gobierno (Government Palace), Fortin El Samuro (Fortress of the Hawk, 18th century), Parish House , Tapavera Museum of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Art, Puente de Angosturo (Bridge on the Rapids, 1967), Casa del Correo del Orinoco (Bolívar Museum), Museo Geologico y Minero de Ciudad Bolivar (city museum of geology and mineralogy).
General information
Location: northern part of South America.
Administrative affiliation: municipality of Gran Sabana, Bolivar state, Venezuela.
Territorial affiliation: national park Canaima.
River: Churun.
Cascade height: 172 and 807 m.
Total drop height: 979 m.
Waterfall height: 1054 m.
Width: up to 107 m.
Water consumption: 300 m3/s.
Remoteness: 260 km from the city of Ciudad Bolivar.
Angel Falls on the map
Angel (Spanish Salto Ángel, in Pemon language - Kerepakupai vena, which means “Waterfall of the deepest place”) is the highest waterfall in the world, a total height of 979 meters, a continuous fall height of 807 meters. Named after pilot James Angel, who flew over the falls in 1935.
Angel translated into Russian means “angel”. Although the names of waterfalls are usually very figurative and poetic, this waterfall is called an angel not in honor of the biblical angels and not because of its “proximity to heaven.” The 1st magnitude giant bears the name of its discoverer, the Venezuelan pilot Juan Angel, and the Indians called the waterfall Apemey or Maiden's Eyebrow. Angel Falls, more than a kilometer high, was discovered relatively recently - in 1935. This proves how much unknown our beautiful planet Earth still conceals.
How could such a phenomenal miracle of nature - a vertical stream of water a mile high - be hidden from humanity throughout history? The fact is that Angel is located in one of the most remote and inaccessible corners of the earth. The southeastern part of Venezuela - the Auyan Tepui mountain range (Devil's Mountain) is composed of porous sandstones, has a height of up to 2600 m, and ends abruptly with a sheer rock wall. The approaches to the wall are blocked by the selva - a dense tropical forest.
What was Angel looking for there? In the 1930s, a “diamond fever” broke out in Venezuela. Hundreds of adventurers, businessmen hungry for profit, and simply the poor rushed into the impenetrable jungle. Angel bought a small sports plane and flew to the Auyan Tepui massif. In those places, the tops of the table mountains are often covered with clouds. Angel was flying in clear weather and was the first to see a kilometer-long vertical water line.
It turned out that the waterfall does not fall from the very edge of the highland ledge. The Churumi River has “cut through” the upper edge of the cliff and falls 80-100 m below its edge. Water consumption - 300 sq.m/s.
Juan Angel (Angel) did not discover diamond deposits or build sanatoriums. Others have done it. He had an accident and was saved literally by a miracle. He landed in the very place that Conan Doyle chose to unfold the events of his famous novel The Lost World. Having reached the nearest post office, Angel reported his discovery to the National Geographic Society of the United States, and his name is now on all maps of the world. On Latin American maps the waterfall is often designated as Salto Angel, i.e. "angel's jump." Last years The discoverer spent his life in Venezuela, in the state of Ciudad Bolivar, and died in 1956. According to Angel’s will, his ashes were scattered over a waterfall named after him.
The extent to which the term “miracle” in relation to the surviving pilot Angel is not an exaggeration can be judged by the fact that fourteen years later, in 1949, a group of five American and Venezuelan surveyors barely made their way through the jungle to the waterfall, as the wild forest was completely intertwined with vines and lush shrubby vegetation. They had to continuously cut the road with machetes and axes. The expedition spent... nineteen days to cover the last 36 km! But the game was worth the candle. What the expedition members saw will not be forgotten by any of them until the end of their days.
Most vivid description waterfall - perhaps the best in world literature - belongs to the chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee Yu. A. Zhukov, who surveyed Angel Falls from an airplane in April 1971." The pilot is flying his plane very close to him. In front of us is an incredibly high one - a kilometer! - an elastic, foamy white column of water, - a tight stream of flow falls from the plateau into the abyss, at the bottom of which the river is reborn. Churumi, whose flow is interrupted by this crazy water jump... We have already heard and read that the height of the water fall here is so great that the stream, without reaching the bottom of the abyss, turns into water dust, which settles on the stones as rain. But you had to see this in order to imagine all the originality of the spectacle that presented itself: somewhere below, about three hundred meters from the bottom of the abyss, a powerful, elastic, boiling stream suddenly seemed to melt and break off in the fog. And even lower, as if born out of nothing, the river was seething... How I would like to approach the waterfall not by plane, but on the ground - to stand near it, listen to its roar, inhale the smell of water falling from the sky! But this is impossible...".
But it is the highest in the world - the Angel’s water flow has to fly almost a kilometer to reach the ground! Angel Falls is 20 times higher than Niagara Falls!
Angel Falls(Angel Falls) or Salto Angel (Salto Angel) is the highest free-falling waterfall in the world with a height of 978 meters. The waterfall is located in the tropical forests of Venezuela, in the Canaima National Park. Water cascades from the top of Auyantepui, the largest of the Venezuelan tepuis - its name means “mountain of the devil” in Russian.
The height of the fall is so great that before reaching the ground, the water is sprayed into tiny particles and turns into fog. The fog can be felt even several kilometers from the waterfall!
The falling water flows into the Kerep River. Getting to the waterfall is not easy as it is located in a dense tropical forest. And there are no roads leading to it. You can only get there by air or by river. Tours to the waterfall are sold in packages and include a flight from Caracas or Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima, a subsequent trip by water, food and other things necessary to visit the waterfall.
Angel Falls cascades from the top of a flat mountain called tepui by the natives. The flat mountain called Auyan Tepuy (Devil's Mountain) is one of more than a hundred similar ones scattered across the Guiana Highlands in southeastern Venezuela. These slumbering giants are characterized by their massive heights that soar into the sky, with flat tops and completely vertical sides. Tepuis, also called "table mountains" (which accurately describes their shape), were formed from sandstone billions of years ago. Their vertical slopes are continuously destroyed under the influence of heavy rains falling on the Guiana Highlands.
The natives of Venezuela knew about Salto Angel from time immemorial. The falls were originally discovered in 1910 by a Spanish explorer named Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz. However, it was not known to the world until its official discovery by American aviator and gold prospector James Crawford Angel, after whom it was named. Angel was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1899.
James Angel flew over the area in 1935 and landed on the top of a lonely mountain in search of gold. His Flamingo monoplane was stuck in the swampy jungle at the top, and he noticed a rather impressive waterfall extending down thousands of feet. He had little luck on the 11-mile excursion back to civilization, and his plane remained chained to the mountain, a rusting monument to his discovery. Soon the whole world learned about the waterfall, which became known as Angel Falls, in honor of the pilot who discovered it.
Jimmy Angel's plane remained in the jungle for 33 years until it was recovered by helicopter. It is currently housed in the Aviation Museum in Maracay.
The official height of the waterfall was determined by an expedition of the National Geographic Society in 1949. The waterfall is the main attraction of Venezuela.
On December 20, 2009, on his weekly show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in the wake of anti-imperialism, renamed Angel Falls in Kerepakupai-meru, according to one of its local names. Initially, the name Churun-meru was proposed, but the President's daughter noticed that one of the smallest waterfalls in this area had this name, after which Chavez suggested a different name. The President explained this decision by saying that the waterfall was the property of Venezuela and part of its national wealth long before James Angel appeared, and the waterfall should not bear his name. However, this does not mean that it will also be renamed on world maps)
