Angel Falls: “Beautiful Angel Leap. Angel - the highest waterfall in the world (16 photos) The history of the discovery of Angel Falls

Among tourists Latin America enjoys enormous popularity. 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 were inhabited by spirits who traded in stealing 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 in the Canaima National Park in eastern Venezuela, allows every second to process about 300 m 3 of raging water elements. It is worth noting that the waterfall can boast of such “throughput capacity” exclusively in the period from May to November, when South America the wet season is coming. It is during the rainy season that the width of the Angel water stream often exceeds 100 m. In the dry season, the waterfall changes radically, decreasing at best 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 areas, it is absolutely not surprising that the world community learned about it 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 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 for tens of kilometers by deaf tropical forest, it is less likely than others to become the object of study by 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, listed by UNESCO along with the waterfall in 1994. World Heritage.

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 largest one closest to the waterfall locality− the city of Ciudat Bolivar is 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, the 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. Getting to the waterfall on foot is almost impossible, but 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 at a distance 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.

Angel (Spanish: Salto Ángel, in Pemonese - Kerepakupai vena, which means “Waterfall” deepest place") - the highest waterfall in the world, total height 979 meters, continuous fall height 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. Southeastern part of Venezuela – mountain range Auyan-Tepui (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 rush” 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 “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 “ lost World" Having reached the nearest post office, Angel reported his discovery to the National Geographical Society 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.

The most vivid description of the waterfall - perhaps the best in world literature - belongs to the chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee, Yu. A. Zhukov, who viewed 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…“.

Angel Falls: luxurious and majestic

Angel Falls, also called Salto Angela, is known as the highest waterfall in the world. It differs significantly from its other famous “brothers” - Niagara, Victoria and Iguazu. Angel is much more modest than them in terms of the volume of water passed through. But the height of her free fall - 978 meters - allows us to characterize Angel as the most big waterfall in the world.

Angel Falls - photo

History of discovery

Angel Falls received its name in honor of the American pilot James Angel, who in 1935 saw a stream of water falling from a height of more than a thousand meters from an airplane. James was not going to discover anything; he was looking for gold, but due to an accident he made an emergency landing in the jungle of the Guiana Highlands. The discovery of the waterfall became a kind of compensation for him for the plane, which had to be left to rot in a tropical swamp, and for the journey through the jungle to civilization. These eleven miles were not the most pleasant of his life.

Angel Falls - photo

But, as often happens, Angel was far from the first person to see this miracle of nature, and not even the first European. The Indians knew about it long before Columbus led his caravels through Atlantic Ocean. It was they who gave the name “tepui” to the mountains characteristic of the Guiana Highlands. They all have vertical slopes and flat tops, like Table Mountain near Cape Town. Tepuis are constantly subject to water erosion due to tropical rainfall, characteristic of the climate of this area. The name of the mountain from which the stream falls remains Indian. "Auyantepui" translated from one of the local dialects means "devil's mountain".

Aboriginal stories brought the Spanish conquistador Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz to these lands. But its discovery was safely forgotten until 1935.

Angel Falls - photo

Location and road to Angel

Angel Falls is located in Venezuela, in the Canaima Park. If Niagara and Victoria are easily accessible to tourists, they have convenient roads, and hotels are built nearby, then it is much more difficult to see the “Angel’s Flip”. Roads simply do not exist in the tropical jungle - movement is only possible by water or air. To see the largest waterfall with your own eyes, you need to travel by plane from the capital of Venezuela, Caracas. There are also regular flights from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima, and then you will have to make boat trip. The cost of the tour usually includes the necessary equipment, equipment and food costs.

Angel Falls - photo

Those who want to see this wonder of the world have to put up with the need to get wet from the fog. Water, falling from a great height, is dispersed into tiny particles and it is in this form that it enters the Kerep River.

Any schoolchild knows in which country Angel Falls is located. This natural object declared a national treasure of Venezuela. Its height was measured in 1949, and in 1968, James Angel's plane was removed from the jungle using a helicopter and solemnly placed in a museum. Those wishing to see this relic should go to the city of Maracay and visit the local aviation museum.

The world's highest waterfall is Angel Falls, located in Venezuela. The total height of Angel Falls is 979 meters, the height of the continuous fall is 807 meters. Water falls from the top of Mount Auyantepui. National Park Canaima, where the falls are located, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is how Angel Falls describes it modern traveler Alexander Klenov: “It remains a mystery where the waterfall is fed from. At the top there is no lake, no river, nothing. Only strange vegetation, unprecedented animals, fog and silence... The place is enchanted.”

The world's highest waterfall was named after the American pilot James Angel, who in the 30s of the last century opened the waterfall to the world community. For the first time, Angel, in search of ore deposits (according to other sources, diamonds) flew over the waterfall in 1933, and in 1937 he returned to the waterfall and tried to land on its top, but the plane got stuck in the mud and was damaged, so Angel, his wife and two more of their companions were forced to return home on foot (this journey took 11 days). Angel's plane was recovered from the top of the falls 33 years later using a helicopter.

In Spanish, the pilot's surname (Angel) is read as "Angel" - hence the name of the waterfall. In 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez proposed the original name for the waterfall - Kerepakupai-meru ("Waterfall of the Deepest Place"), as the waterfall was called by the indigenous people - the Pemon Indians. Hugo Chavez motivated the renaming of the waterfall by the fact that local Indians knew about the waterfall for thousands of years before it was discovered by an American pilot.

Mount Auyantepui:

Getting to the falls is not so easy - Angel is located in the wilderness of Venezuela. A trip to the waterfall includes air travel from Caracas or Cuidad Bolivar to Canaima, water crossing and meals. At the request of tourists, an air flight over the waterfall can be included in the price of the trip. On cloudy days, Angel may not be visible. Therefore, it is better to visit the waterfall from December to March, when there is a better chance of seeing it from above, although at this time there is less water in the waterfall. The entire trip from the city and back takes approximately 24 hours. For an organized trip for a whole group of people, you can rent a private jet.

Venezuela is an amazing state! After all, it was here that the world-famous Hugo Chavez lived and ruled, and it’s also incredibly low prices for gasoline. Proof of this is the ability to fill up an entire tank of a Jeep for just one hundred rubles. But that's not all. Only located in Venezuela great amount tepui are mountains with truncated peaks, and therefore their appearance is quite unusual and strange. People call them mesas. This name is probably due to the fact that the objects are flat, like tables. Now paint a picture for yourself: in the impenetrable jungle, here and there, rocks are piled up, reaching one kilometer in height. Their peaks are flat and they have sheer vertical walls. Therefore, even after light precipitation, water accumulates there and then flows down in numerous waterfalls. And one of them is the highest Angel Falls.

Angel Falls in numbers

This is the highest free-falling waterfall on Earth. Its appearance is truly amazing! Powerful jets of water fall down and drown in clouds of water dust and fog. The height of Angel Falls reaches 978 meters. Although some sources give a slightly higher figure - 1059 meters. And the height of the Angel Falls is 807 meters. The Computer Network Tower is considered the tallest building on the planet. So, our waterfall is almost twice as high as this creation of human hands. And three times higher Eiffel Tower. They say that Niagara Falls can boast of its parameters. But we will disappoint those who are sure of this. After all, Angel is 20 times taller than his “brother”! In 1949, an expedition of the National Geographic Society determined the official height of the main

The coordinates of Angel Falls, which has no equal in the whole world, can be indicated by the following numbers: latitude - 5°58"03" N. latitude, or 5.9675, and longitude - 62 ° 32 "08" W. d., or 62.535556. And every second Angel passes through himself three hundred cubic meters of water, which is delivered by the Churun River.

History of the discovery of the waterfall

Angel Falls was discovered relatively recently. Not even a hundred years have passed since that time. It all happened completely by accident, and this story is quite interesting. In the 1930s, a diamond fever outbreak broke out in Venezuela. Hundreds of fans of easy money and those who simply had nothing better to do rushed into the impenetrable and dense jungle. American pilot James Angel purchased a small type and headed for the Auyan Tepui massif - this is just not far from the place where Angel Falls was hidden from human sight for many centuries...

More valuable than diamonds

The peaks of the mesas in that area are often obscured by clouds. But Angel was lucky: he was flying in clear weather. And he was the first to be lucky enough to see a kilometer-long water vertical. Angel failed to find diamonds, but he brought world fame to the waterfall. The gold miner's plane crashed, and only a miracle saved the pilot. James landed in the very place that the famous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle chose to describe the events in the novel The Lost World.

Angel took 11 days to reach civilization. And so, when he managed to find the first post office he came across, he informed the American National Geographic Society about where Angel Falls was located. He described his discovery and the find was named after him. "But why Angel?" - the reader will ask. And all because Angel in Spanish is read as Angel.

A little about the surrounding area

Tourists would probably like to find out more about where Angel Falls is located. And he was located, as mentioned above, in Venezuela, in a mountainous area called Guyana. This is on the Carrao River, which is one of the tributaries of the Orinoco. From the same Spanish language, Angel is translated as “angel”.

Since ancient times, the name Churun-Meru has been assigned to the landmark. That's what the Indian tribes living in this area called it. The plateau from which the waterfall falls is called Auyan Tepui, which means “devil’s mountain.” This name was given because the plateau is constantly shrouded in thick fog. Where Angel Falls is located, tropical forests grow everywhere, so there are no special roads to it. Thus, you can get here either by air or by water.

National park and travel to it

Angel is part national park Venezuela - Canaima. Hundreds of excursions are organized annually to this natural wonder. But since this place is quite inaccessible, people prefer air walks. If you decide to get to Angel along the river, then you can do it as follows: first you will have to sail in a motor canoe to the village of Canaima, and then walk about two or three kilometers. It leads to Canaima and in the neighborhood the local authorities have developed small airport, which provides services to guests and tourists. Travelers can take advantage of the shops, bars and comfortable hotels. The waterfall, together with the surrounding areas, has managed to preserve the charm of the wilderness. If you are lucky, during your walk you can see local animals that have come to the watering hole. The park jungle is home to jaguars, three-toed sloths, otters and other interesting fauna.

The height of Angel Falls provides an opportunity to admire observation deck and the nearby picturesque lagoon, which has the same name as the park. Powerful streams of water rush here from the ledges around.

Who renamed the waterfall and why?

In 2009, the then President of Venezuela said that Angel Falls should be renamed Kerepakupai Meru. True, the option of Churun-Meru was first considered. But one of the ruler’s daughters remembered that a waterfall with the same name already existed in this area. Plus it's quite small. Then Hugo Chavez decided to opt for Kerepakupai-Meru. The leader motivated his action by the fact that the landmark should not bear the name of an American, since long before its opening the waterfall was located on the territory of Venezuela and belonged only to it.

Where Angel Falls is located, many different plants grow. A third of them are found nowhere else on the planet. The waterfall itself is fed by rainwater, so when the dry season arrives, it turns into a thin trickle. When precipitation falls again, the landmark takes on the appearance of a powerful, immense and so beautiful giant.

A few things that few people know about

It is believed that the first person from Europe to see Angel was Ernest Sanchez La Cruz. The attraction was revealed to his eyes in 1910. There is also information that even earlier this giant was noticed by Spanish conquistadors and Catholic missionary monks. But still, James Angel brought fame to the miracle of nature. Later, the coordinates of the Angel (waterfall) were established and its height was determined.

James Angel's broken plane lay on the top of the mountain for 33 years. In 1970, the remains of the machine were removed from the tepui. It was restored, and today the plane stands at the entrance to the city airport of Ciudad Bolivar. After James' death (1960), his ashes were scattered over the highest waterfall on Earth, which was named after the pilot. This was Angel's last wish.

The waterfall is a fascinating sight; let the traveler see this for himself by seeing this miracle of nature with his own eyes.