Kukenán Tepuy
Interesting facts
- The pebble toad, known only from Kukenán and neighbouring Yuruaní tepui, escapes danger by curling into a ball and tumbling down the rock like a loose stone.
- Local Pemón tradition regards the mountain as a place of the dead, and its common name comes from the Kukenán River that rises on its summit.
- Around 1843–1844 some 400 people died at the foot of Kukenán in the Bekeranta movement, whose prophet Awakaipu promised his followers rebirth with European power.
- Awakaipu handed out pages of the London Times as sacred charms, according to the naturalist Carl Ferdinand Appun, who recorded the story in 1871.
- The 1972 ascent by Stephen Platt, Hans Schwarzer, Ramón Blanco and Pemón guide Ambrosio Pérez may not be the first: a Bangor University party possibly climbed it in 1963.
- Water from the plateau feeds the Kukenán River, which joins the Yuruaní to form one of the headwaters of the Caroní.
- The word tepui comes from the Pemón language and is usually translated as house of the gods.
Why it is worth it
Kukenán, also known as Matawi or Cuquenán, is one of the great table mountains of the Gran Sabana in south-eastern Venezuela: a sandstone block about three kilometres long rising to 2,680 metres, its summit plateau of more than 21 square kilometres ringed on every side by sheer cliffs hundreds of metres high. It stands right beside Mount Roraima, its better-known neighbour to the south-east, and from the savanna below the two look like twin fortresses with a gap of sky between them. Both lie in Canaima National Park, the vast protected area of tepuis, rivers and savannas in the Guiana Highlands.
What sets Kukenán apart is its waterfall. On the southern end of the tepui, a stream runs off the plateau and falls 674 metres down the bare cliff face — a white thread falling sheer down a dark wall, often half hidden by the cloud that wraps the mountain's top. From the savanna the cliffs seem to rise straight out of the grassland, and the scale only becomes clear when you try to follow the falling water from top to bottom.
The summit itself is one of the least visited of the major tepuis. The first confirmed ascent was made only in 1972, by a small party with a local guide, and climbing Kukenán has always been far harder than Roraima; since 1997 it has been closed to climbers on safety and environmental grounds. Its top is therefore known mostly from expedition accounts and from the views across from Roraima's plateau, where trekkers look over the gap at its rain-washed cliffs. The scenery of these tepuis is also said to have inspired the setting of the animated film Up.
Getting there
Kukenán stands in the Gran Sabana about 73 km from Santa Elena de Uairén, the town near the Brazilian border that serves as the base for the region; Santa Elena de Uairén Airport (SNV) is about 80 km away and handles small domestic flights. The classic way to see the tepui is on the multi-day Roraima trek: agencies in Santa Elena take hikers by jeep to the Pemón village of Paraitepui, from where the trail crosses the savanna, fords the Tek and Kukenán rivers and passes directly beneath Kukenán's cliffs on the way up Roraima.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Mount Roraima 9.7 km · tepui
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Kukenán, also known as Matawi or Cuquenán, is a tepui in Bolívar State, Guayana Region, Venezuela. It has an estimated surface area of 2185 hectares. It is 2,680 metres (8,790 ft) high and about 3 km (1.9 mi) long. Kukenan Falls, which is 674 m (2,211 ft) high, is located at the south end of the tepui.
Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
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