Canaima National Park
Parque Nacional Canaima
- UNESCO World Heritage
- UNESCO natural beauty
Interesting facts
- Angel Falls takes its name from American pilot Jimmie Angel, who flew over it in 1933 and crash-landed his plane on top of Auyán-tepui in 1937.
- Angel, his wife and two companions needed 11 days to climb down the tepui on foot after their plane's wheels sank into the marshy summit.
- The stranded aircraft stayed on top of Auyán-tepui for 33 years before a helicopter lifted it out; it is now displayed at Ciudad Bolívar airport.
- Of the falls' 979 metres, the single uninterrupted plunge accounts for about 807 metres.
- The Pemón name for the falls, Kerepakupai Merú, is usually translated as the waterfall of the deepest place.
- Angel Falls was the main model for Paradise Falls in the 2009 Pixar film Up.
- The cliff beside the falls was first climbed in January 1971 by a four-man team that took nine and a half days to reach the top.
- Mount Roraima's name comes from the Pemón words for blue-green and great.
- A cave system inside Mount Roraima contains what is described as the largest quartz cave in the world.
- More than 300 plant species are found only in the Gran Sabana, the highland savanna that makes up much of the park.
Why it is worth it
Canaima National Park covers about 30,000 square kilometres of south-eastern Venezuela, stretching to the borders with Brazil and Guyana and taking in most of the Gran Sabana. It is one of the largest national parks in the world, roughly the size of Belgium. Around two-thirds of it is taken up by tepuis — flat-topped mountains of ancient sandstone with sheer cliff walls, rising abruptly from the savanna and forest like islands. Their rock is among the oldest on Earth, laid down on granite nearly three billion years old, dating from a time when South America and Africa were still joined.
From the rim of Auyán-tepui falls Angel Falls, at 979 metres the highest waterfall in the world, dropping towards the Devil's Canyon; the Kukenán falls, also among the highest, pour from another tepui. Mount Roraima, where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet, is the tallest of the tepuis and the easiest to climb. On the summits, cut off from the lowlands for millions of years, grows a world of endemic plants, including carnivorous pitcher plants, sundews and bladderworts that catch insects to make up for the poor soil.
The park is the home of the Pemón, a Carib-speaking people who regard the tepuis as dwellings of spirits called mawari. Ancient rock paintings found in the region, estimated to be several thousand years old, are older than the Pemón's arrival. The park was created in 1962 and inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1994. In the west, around the lagoon of Canaima village with its falls, tours set out by canoe and on foot towards Angel Falls; in the east, the open Gran Sabana is dotted with waterfalls and Pemón communities on the way to Roraima.
Getting there
There are few roads, and most travel inside the park is by light aircraft, boat or on foot. Canaima Airport (CAJ), in the village of Canaima about 46 km downstream from Angel Falls, is served by light aircraft, which also fly sightseeing trips over the falls. The eastern side is reached from Santa Elena de Uairén, which has its own airport (SNV); the park's central point lies about 110 km from the town.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Canaima National Park is a 30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi) park in south-eastern Venezuela that roughly occupies the same area as the Gran Sabana region. It is located in Bolívar State, reaching the borders with Brazil and Guyana. The park was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
5.31934, -61.79535per Wikidata