Angel Falls, Waterfall in Canaima National Park, Bolívar, Venezuela
Water plunges 979 meters (3,212 feet) from Auyantepui mountain, forming the tallest uninterrupted cascade on Earth with a free fall section followed by rapids in the Churún River below.
Jimmie Angel, an American pilot searching for gold, documented these falls in 1933 during a flight, resulting in their English name despite being known to indigenous communities for centuries.
The waterfall's Pemon name, Kerepakupai Vená, means "waterfall of the deepest place"; the Pemon considered Auyán-tepui a dangerous place and did not visit it, so there is no proof they named the local streams. In 2009 President Hugo Chávez proposed renaming the falls with this indigenous term, then said he would not decree the change. The Latvian explorer Aleksandrs Laime, who reached the base in 1946, named the feeding stream Gauja after a Latvian river in 1955.
Access requires flights to Canaima camp followed by approximately five hours of river travel by boat to reach viewing areas, typically possible between June and December during the rainy season.
During dry months, reduced water volume causes the cascade to fragment into separate threads that transform into mist before reaching the river below, creating a constantly changing appearance.
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