You may have thought that Niagara Falls was a magnificent sight. We've seen Niagara close up, and its 60 metre (190 foot) drop is more than impressive ... it's awe inspiring. But in terms of height, the most incredible falls in the world have to be Angel Falls in Venezuela, which fall further than any other waterfall in the world ... a distance of 980 metres (3200 feet). That's almost a kilometre.
Located in southeastern Venezuela in South America, Angel Falls is the highest uninterrupted waterfall in the world, dropping from the mesa of Auyán Tepuy in the rain-forest-covered Guiana Highlands. It was discovered in 1935 by the American aviator and adventurer James C. Angel, after whom it is named.
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This is the magnificent Niagara Falls in Ontario. Water falls a distance of 60 metres.
Angel Falls, on the right, represents a 900 metre drop; the photo includes a picture of Niagara Falls inset, to the same scale.
Angel Falls is 15 times higher!
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The Angel Falls mesa is one of over a hundred similar mesas, which are scattered about the Guiana Highlands of southeast Venezuela. These mesas (Tepuys) are like lone mountains rising up towards the sky, each with a flat top and totally vertical sides.
Also called "table mountains" (an accurate description of 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.
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Social Studies | Social Studies & the Arts | Worsley School
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