Some world records aren’t pretty. Watching
someone
pull a truck via meat hooks in the back, for
example,
probably isn’t anyone’s idea of a beautiful
aesthetic.
But then there are some records that simply
take your
breath away, for all the right reasons.
One of those is the highest waterfall, held
by
Venezuela’s Angel Falls.
With a height of 979 m (3,212 ft), Angel
Falls defines
majesty. Its greatest single drop measures
807 m
(2,648 ft), with other rapids and cascades
combining
to form the remaining height.
Angel Falls is named after the American
aviator
Jimmie Angel. On November 18, 1933, he
became the
first person to fly over them, thus sharing
their
existence with the public and forever linking
himself
to one of Earth’s true natural wonders.
Located in the Guiana Highlands in the state
of
Bolívar, the falls sit deep in the Venezuelan
jungle
and to this day remain very difficult to
reach.
The
falls sit on the Churú River, which flows into
the
Caroní. They flow approximately 260 km
(160 miles)
southeast of Ciudad Bolívar, the 11th-largest
city in
Venezuela.
To put the majesty of Angel Falls into
perspective,
consider its height in relation to some of the
world’s
other famous waterfalls. Niagara Falls, on
the
Canadian-American border, measures a
height of 50
m (165 ft), nearly 20 times shorter. And
southern
Africa’s Victoria Falls drops “just” 108 m
(355 ft)
itself.
The region’s geography helped shape Angel
Falls and
the many other waterfalls around it.
Mountain-like
structures known as tepuis jut out from the
Venezuelan ground and help establish a
unique
environment for wonders like the falls to
exist.
Over the years, Angel Falls has gone by many
other
names. In Spanish, it’s known as Salto
Ángel. It has
also been called Salto Churú Merú. And an
indigenous name for the falls is Kerepakupai
Merú.
Regardless of what it’s called – just as a
rose by any
other name would smell as sweet – Angel
Falls by any
name, sight, or measure would inspire its
observers
no less.