The Most Beautiful Waterfalls in Asia

20 places in 9 countries · updated 13 October 2026

1. 01 Jog Falls

   India14.230° N 74.813° E

   

   The falls change completely with the seasons. Upstream, the Linganamakki Dam holds back the river for a hydroelectric project, so in the dry months the streams can shrink to threads against the dark rock. During and just after the monsoon they swell into a thundering white wall, often half hidden in drifting spray and cloud, with the forested gorge around them at its greenest.

   Did you know? Jog is ranked the third-highest waterfall in India, after Nohkalikai Falls in Meghalaya and Dudhsagar Falls in Goa.

   More about Jog Falls →

2. 02 Kegon Falls

   Japan · 39 km from Utsunomiya36.738° N 139.502° E

   

   The landscape here was shaped by fire. Around 20,000 years ago an eruption of Mount Nantai dammed the valley and created Lake Chūzenji; the short Ōjiri River now spills from the lake and plunges over the edge of the old lava flows. The rock is young and brittle: water leaking through cracks in it feeds the so-called Twelve Falls, a fringe of small cascades that emerge midway down the cliff and never run dry. Below the main drop, a steep V-shaped gorge continues downstream, carved as the falls slowly ate their way back into the soft volcanic deposits.

   Did you know? During a typhoon in October 2018 the flow over the falls swelled to about 55 tonnes of water per second.

   More about Kegon Falls →

3. 03 Kuang Si Falls

   Laos · 21.7 km from Luang Prabang19.749° N 101.992° E

   

   Just inside the entrance, before any of that, is the Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre, run by the Australian charity Free the Bears. It houses Asiatic black bears — often called moon bears for the pale crescent on their chests — rescued mainly from bile farms and the wildlife trade, where they'd otherwise be kept in cages for the traditional-medicine industry to extract bile from their gallbladders. It's an unusual pairing: a natural swimming spot funding, and drawing attention to, an active wildlife-crime rescue operation next door.

   Did you know? The word kuang means deer in Lao, a link to the legend of the deer that made its home by the waterfall.

   More about Kuang Si Falls →

4. 04 Ban Gioc–Detian Falls

   People's Republic of China22.856° N 106.722° E

   

   The border itself took a long and difficult path to where it sits today. During the brief but bloody Sino-Vietnamese war of 1979, the falls area became a crossing point for Chinese forces, and the frontier here remained unresolved for another two decades afterward — it was only formally settled in 1999, more than 20 years after the fighting. That history is part of why the site today is developed and visited almost entirely separately from each side: crossing from one viewing area to the other isn't a matter of walking over, it means an actual border crossing with visas.

   Did you know? Its average annual flow is about three times that of Huangguoshu Falls in Guizhou, one of China's most famous waterfalls.

   More about Ban Gioc–Detian Falls →

5. 05 Huangguoshu Waterfall

   People's Republic of China · 39 km from Anshun25.992° N 105.666° E

   

   What sets Huangguoshu apart is that you can walk behind it. The Water Curtain Cave, a natural gallery about 134 metres long cut into the cliff some 40 to 47 metres up the face of the fall, runs right behind the falling water, with openings like windows through which the river thunders past close enough to feel. From below, a path leads to the pool at the base, where on sunny days rainbows hang in the spray. The fall is carved into soft limestone, and the surrounding rock is honeycombed with channels and caves typical of the Guizhou karst.

   Did you know? When Xu Xiake visited in 1638 the fall had no name of its own; for centuries it was simply called after the river, the Baishui or White Water.

   More about Huangguoshu Waterfall →

6. 06 Shiraito Falls

   Japan · 37.5 km from Kōfu35.313° N 138.589° E

   

   The falls have been admired for centuries. The chronicle of Oda Nobunaga's life, the Shinchō Kōki, already mentions "the famous Shiraito falls" in the western hills. In the Edo period they became a pilgrimage stop for members of the Fuji-kō, the confraternities that worshipped the mountain; a memorial stone to the ascetic Jikigyō Miroku, raised in the Tenpō era, still stands near the pool. Local tradition holds that the warlord Minamoto no Yoritomo stopped here during his great hunt at the foot of Fuji, tidied his hair with water from a spring in a grotto above the falls, and composed a poem about the white threads.

   Did you know? Back in 1927 two leading newspapers already named the falls among the 100 Landscapes of Japan.

   More about Shiraito Falls →

7. 07 Nohkalikai Falls

   India · 38 km from Shillong25.276° N 91.687° E

   

   The fall has no glacier or large river behind it. It is fed by rain collected on the plateau top, and this is one of the wettest corners of the planet: Sohra, the town long known as Cherrapunji, has built its reputation on record rainfall. The result is a waterfall with two faces. In the monsoon months it thunders and throws up so much spray that the gorge fills with cloud; between December and February it thins to a delicate thread, and on a clear day you can follow it all the way down to the green pool.

   Did you know? Sohra, the town above the falls, received 26,461 millimetres of rain between August 1860 and July 1861, a world record for a single year.

   More about Nohkalikai Falls →

8. 08 Khone Phapheng Falls

   Laos13.960° N 105.987° E

   

   The falls are impressive for their volume more than their height. The Mekong's average flow here is about 11,000 cubic metres a second, and floods have pushed it past 49,000. In the wet season, roughly June to September, the individual steps disappear under one heaving wall of brown water and spray. In the dry months the rock ledges come back into view and the water splits into separate torrents between them. The falls also shelter rare fish: the endangered giant Mekong catfish lives in these waters, and a small hillstream loach is named after the falls.

   Did you know? French gunboats tried in 1891, 1892 and 1893 to haul themselves up the falls with hundreds of men on ropes, and every attempt failed.

   More about Khone Phapheng Falls →

9. 09 Hukou Waterfalls

   People's Republic of China36.147° N 110.444° E

   

   The fall sits where the middle Yellow River cuts through the Jinxia Grand Canyon, on the boundary between Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces; one bank belongs to Ji County, the other to Yichuan County. The main channel is usually about 30 metres wide and swells to around 50 metres in flood season, when the river spreads over the surrounding rock shelves and the whole bed seems to boil. On sunny days the spray rising from the gorge catches the light and throws a rainbow over the brown water — the contrast is one of the images most associated with the place.

   Did you know? In September 1938 the poet Guang Weiran crossed the Yellow River by wooden boat near Hukou, and the boatmen's fight with the current inspired the Yellow River Cantata.

   More about Hukou Waterfalls →

10. 10 Baatara Gorge Waterfall

    Lebanon · 29.6 km from Tripoli34.173° N 35.870° E

    

    The chasm, also called the Cave of the Three Bridges or the Gouffre des Trois Ponts, lies in the high country of the Batroun district, near the village of Chatine in the area of Tannourine. A path leads down from Balaa, a hamlet on the mountain road from Laqlouq to Tannourine, to the valley where the bridges stand. The site lies on the Lebanon Mountain Trail, the long-distance footpath that follows the range.

    Did you know? Strictly there are only two rock spans, at about a third and two-thirds of the depth; from the opposite rim, with the top ledge, they read as three bridges.

    More about Baatara Gorge Waterfall →

11. 11 Shōmyō Falls

    Japan · 29.7 km from Toyama36.575° N 137.523° E

    

    The volume depends on the mountains above. Precipitation in this part of the Tateyama range exceeds 6,000 millimetres a year, much of it falling as snow, so the falls run fullest in early and mid summer, when the snowfields on the plateau melt. In that season a second waterfall, Hannoki Falls, appears beside it on the same cliff, and the two pour down almost side by side. Hannoki measures about 497 metres, taller than Shōmyō, but it is fed only by meltwater and usually runs only from spring into July, which is why the title of Japan's highest waterfall is normally given to its steadier neighbour.

    Did you know? Above the falls the river runs through Shōmyō Rōka, a narrow, sheer-walled gorge cut into the welded tuff of the plateau.

    More about Shōmyō Falls →

12. 12 Dudhsagar Falls

    India15.313° N 74.314° E

    

    What makes the scene unlike any other waterfall in the country is the railway. The Londa–Vasco da Gama line climbs through the Braganza Ghats, a 26-kilometre mountain section between Castle Rock in Karnataka and Kulem in Goa, threading a string of tunnels. Midway it crosses the face of the falls on a bridge, so that trains pass directly in front of the cascade. Before the Konkan Railway opened, this ghat line was the only rail link into Goa, and descending trains still pause at the small stations along it for mandatory brake tests. A painting of the falls by the Portuguese traveller António Lopes Mendes shows the cascade already drawing attention in the early 1850s.

    Did you know? The ghat section has three intermediate stations, Caranzol, Dudhsagar and Sonaulim, where trains have no commercial halts.

    More about Dudhsagar Falls →

13. 13 Kawasan Falls

    Philippines9.802° N 123.374° E

    

    The main fall is the picture most people carry away: a broad curtain of white water dropping into a wide round pool, edged with trees, where rafts take visitors in under the spray and swimmers dive off the surrounding rocks. From the lowest basin the stream continues to the Matutinao River and out to the sea in the Tañon Strait, a short distance downstream.

    Did you know? Its turquoise colour is usually attributed to minerals dissolved from the limestone through which the spring water travels before reaching the falls.

    More about Kawasan Falls →

14. 14 Thi Lo Su waterfall

    Thailand15.927° N 98.753° E

    

    The falls are not a single drop but a broad wall of many separate streams, tumbling in tiers down the cliff. Seen from the front, they fall into three groups: the left-hand group is the largest, highest and most layered; the central one drops down a sheer face in narrower ribbons; and the right-hand group spreads into many smaller strands over a lower cliff. Spray drifts over the boulders at the foot, and rainbows often form in it; the Tourism Authority of Thailand singled out the rainbows of Thi Lo Su in a national campaign promoting the country's natural wonders. The waterfall is at its fullest during the rainy months from June to November, when the stream swells and the curtain widens.

    Did you know? Estimates of its width range from about 400 to 500 metres, and some describe the limestone cliff behind it as nearly 300 metres high.

    More about Thi Lo Su waterfall →

15. 15 Nachi Falls

    Japan33.672° N 135.891° E

    • UNESCO World Heritage

    

    What makes the site unusual even by Japan's standards is what stands right beside the shrine: Seiganto-ji, a Buddhist temple, sharing the same hillside and for most of their shared history run as effectively one institution rather than two competing faiths. When Buddhism arrived in Japan in the sixth century it didn't displace the older reverence for Nachi's water — the two traditions merged instead, and the temple's three-storied pagoda, standing in front of the falls, is the classic image of that fusion.

    Did you know? Every 14 July the Nachi Fire Festival carries twelve six-metre fan-shaped portable shrines, one for each month, down to the falls amid torches weighing up to 50 kilograms.

    More about Nachi Falls →

16. 16 Jeongbang Waterfall

    South Korea · 29.8 km from Jeju33.245° N 126.572° E

    

    The fall has been admired for centuries. In 1702 the Joseon governor of Jeju, Yi Hyeong-sang, viewed it from a boat, and the scene was painted for the Tamna Sullyeokdo, an illustrated album of his tour of the island; his notes describe the water falling straight into the sea under great pine trees and call it the finest sight in the region. Jeongbang is counted among the Yeongju Sipgyeong, the ten classic scenic views of Jeju, and with Cheonjiyeon and Cheonjeyeon it forms the island's trio of famous waterfalls. It has been a national Scenic Site of Korea since 2008. A smaller fall, Sojeongbang, lies about 300 metres to the east.

    Did you know? In the 1702 Tamna Sullyeokdo album, the fall was recorded as about 80 cheok long and 5 cheok wide in traditional Korean units.

    More about Jeongbang Waterfall →

17. 17 Tumpak Sewu Waterfalls

    Indonesia8.230° S 112.917° E

    

    The name describes the view. In Javanese, tumpak sewu means roughly "a thousand stacked up", evoking countless waterfalls piled side by side; locals also call it Coban Sewu, "the thousand waterfall". It is classed as a tiered fall, and its curtain-like appearance comes from the way the water spreads across the curved cliff before gathering in a valley that runs southwards at around 450 to 500 metres above sea level. The amphitheatre itself is a product of Semeru's volcanic activity: layers of lava and pyroclastic deposits were cut back by water into the steep, arcing walls that give the place its shape.

    Did you know? Semeru, the volcano rising behind the falls, reaches 3,676 metres and is the third-tallest volcano in Indonesia after Kerinci and Rinjani.

    More about Tumpak Sewu Waterfalls →

18. 18 Asik-Asik Falls

    Philippines7.561° N 124.535° E

    

    The falls sit on the slopes of Mount Ragang in the municipality of Alamada, in Cotabato province on the island of Mindanao. There is no visible stream above the cliff, and the most widely held explanation is that the water emerges from an underground river. At the foot of the face it gathers into a pool that drains into the Alamada River, which feeds the Libungan River and eventually the vast Liguasan Marsh.

    Did you know? Mount Ragang, the seventh-highest mountain in the Philippines, is also known locally as Mount Piapayungan and the Blue Mountain.

    More about Asik-Asik Falls →

19. 19 Madakaripura Waterfall

    Indonesia · 18 km from Probolinggo7.845° S 113.017° E

    

    The main fall is only part of the spectacle. Water seeps and drips across the whole face of the surrounding cliffs, falling as a constant fine rain over anyone approaching the basin, and several of these trickles gather into further falls of their own. The upper part of the gorge sits at around 1,000 metres above sea level, and the air in the canyon is noticeably cool and damp. Because the flow stays high throughout the year, local people also call it the "eternal waterfall". The walk in follows the river upstream through tall forest, crossing the stream repeatedly before the gorge narrows around the final pool.

    Did you know? Madakaripura is mentioned in the Nagarakretagama, the Majapahit court poem written by Mpu Prapanca in 1365, which places the estate in the Pasuruan region.

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20. 20 Fukiware Falls

    Japan · 36.4 km from Maebashi36.702° N 139.207° E

    

    The stone is welded tuff, laid down by a massive pyroclastic flow from a volcanic eruption some nine million years ago. Between the confluence of the Hikawa upstream and the Kurihara downstream, the Katashina has carved this rock into a gorge about a kilometre long, eroding the softer parts of the bed faster than the harder ones. The process is still visible: the lip of the falls is retreating upstream by several centimetres a year, and below it the river has drilled potholes six to seven metres across along their longest axis. Two smaller cascades and a series of named rock formations line the gorge, and a riverside path follows the water along the ledges.

    Did you know? A short way downstream, the 8-metre Masutobi Falls was once known by a name meaning roughly 'trout-stopping falls', since fish could not leap past it.

    More about Fukiware Falls →