- Spanish:
- Salto Ăngel
- Also called:
- Salto ChurĂșn MerĂș
Angel Falls
Angel Falls, waterfall in the Guiana Highlands in BolĂvar state, southeastern Venezuela, on the ChurĂșn River, a tributary of the CaronĂ, 160 miles (260 km) southeast of Ciudad BolĂvar. The highest waterfall in the world, the cataract drops 3,212 feet (979 metres) and is 500 feet (150 metres) wide at the base. It leaps from a flat-topped plateau, AuyĂĄn-TepuĂ (âDevils Mountainâ), barely making contact with the sheer face. The falls are located in Canaima National Park, and, because of the dense jungle surrounding the falls, they are best seen from the air.
The falls, first sighted by outsiders in the 1930s, were named for James Angel, an American adventurer who crash-landed his plane on a nearby mesa in 1937. In late 2009 Venezuelan Pres. Hugo ChĂĄvez declared that the falls should be referred to as Kerepakupai MerĂș, an Indigenous name.
