Who discovered Angel Falls. Where is Angel Falls located? Its height and coordinates. Angel Falls: luxurious and majestic
November 14th, 2012
Since we've already talked about it, let's not ignore the famous waterfall throughout the Internet. Moreover, we have a section - we will replenish it.
Angel Falls is considered the highest in the world. Its height is 1054 m (according to other sources - 979 m). Angel Falls (in English - Angel, local name - Churum-meru) is located on the river. Churumi - a tributary of the river. Carrao (Orinoco River basin) in South America, in Venezuela.
Angel Falls is Venezuela's most famous natural treasure and one of the most impressive places in the world. It is 2.5 times higher than the famous Empire State Building in New York, and 15 times higher than the famous Niagara. The discoverer of the waterfall is considered to be the American pilot Jimmy Angel, who dreamed of finding the Golden River all his life. The American adventurer never found gold, but instead discovered one of the most famous natural attractions on our planet. Although the local Pemon Indians knew about the existence of the waterfall for thousands of years, the water cascade was named after Angel (but in the Spanish manner Angel), because it was he who discovered it to the modern world.
Angel translated into Russian means “angel”. Although the names of waterfalls are usually very figurative and poetic, this waterfall is called an angel not in honor of the biblical angels and not because of its “proximity to heaven.” The 1st magnitude giant bears the name of its discoverer, the Venezuelan pilot Juan Angel, while the Indians called the waterfall Apemey or Maiden's Eyebrow. Angel Falls, more than a kilometer high, was discovered relatively recently - in 1935. This proves how much unknown our beautiful planet Earth still conceals.
But let's talk about everything in order...
On November 19, 1933, an American pilot first witnessed the majesty of the tallest waterfall in the world, falling from a height of 979 meters in the jungle of Venezuela. Jimmy Angel described his impressions this way: “When I saw the waterfall, I almost lost control of the plane. A cascade of water straight from the sky!”
How could such a phenomenal miracle of nature - a vertical stream of water a mile high - be hidden from humanity throughout history? The fact is that Angel is located in one of the most remote and inaccessible corners of the earth. The southeastern part of Venezuela - the Auyan Tepui mountain range (Devil's Mountain) is composed of porous sandstones, has a height of up to 2600 m, and ends abruptly with a sheer rock wall. The approaches to the wall are blocked by the selva - a dense tropical forest.
What was Angel looking for there? In the 1930s, a “diamond fever” broke out in Venezuela. Hundreds of adventurers, businessmen hungry for profit, and simply the poor rushed into the impenetrable jungle. Angel bought a small sports plane and flew to the Auyan Tepui massif. In those places, the tops of the table mountains are often covered with clouds. Angel was flying in clear weather and was the first to see a kilometer-long vertical water line.
It turned out that the waterfall does not fall from the very edge of the highland ledge. The Churumi River has “cut through” the upper edge of the cliff and falls 80-100 m below its edge. Water consumption - 300 sq. m/s.
On October 9, 1937, Angel carefully planned his light plane, El Rio Caroni, to land on top of the enormous mountain Auyantepui (with a waterfall falling from its peak) in the isolated Gran Sabana region of Venezuela. According to Jimmy, his plan was to stay at the top of the mountain for a few days in search of gold. But the author’s plans were thwarted by an unsuccessful landing. The plane nose-downed during landing and damaged a fuel line. The accident did not harm Jimmy, his wife Maria, and two colleagues Gustavo Heni and Miguel Delgado, but now they were cut off from the outside world on the top of the Auyantepui mesa.
The only way out was to descend on foot through unmarked territory, with limited food. Eleven days later, exhausted but alive, the group reached the city of Camarata. As word of this event spread around the world, Jimmy Angel's name began to be inextricably linked with the waterfall, which he first saw back in 1933.
Juan Angel (Angel) did not discover diamond deposits. Others have done it. He suffered an accident (the plane capitulated) and was saved literally by a miracle. He landed in the very place that Conan Doyle chose to unfold the events of his famous novel The Lost World. Having reached the nearest post office, Angel reported his discovery to the National Geographic Society of the United States, and his name is now on all maps of the world. On Latin American maps the waterfall is often designated as Salto Angel, i.e. "angel's jump."
The discoverer spent the last years of his life in Venezuela, in the state of Ciudad Bolivar, and died in 1956. According to Angel’s will, his ashes were scattered over a waterfall named after him.
Twelve years later, American photojournalist Ruth Robertson made the first successful expedition to the foot of Angel, measured it and officially declared it the tallest waterfall in the world. Her article, "Jungle Journey to the World's Tallest Waterfall," published in November 1949 in National Geographic magazine, is a fascinating account of this journey.
In 1955, Latvian explorer Alexander Laime became the first Westerner to climb to the source of the river that feeds Angel Falls. Nowadays, the Lime trail is used by tourists when climbing to the top of Mount Auyantepui.
Jimmy Angel's plane remained atop Auyantepui for 33 years. In 1964, the Venezuelan government declared the plane a national monument. In 1970, it was dismantled into pieces and transported by Venezuelan Air Force helicopters to the aviation museum in Maracay for restoration. The plane was later installed on the green lawn in front of the passenger terminal of Ciudad Bolivar Airport, where it remains to this day.
Angel never dreamed that his plane would become a national monument. Years earlier, Patricia Grant had asked Jimmy if he would like to have his plane removed from the top of Auyantepui. Then he replied: “No, by remaining there, he will serve as a memory of me.”
Angel Falls is located in the tropical jungle of the southeastern region of Venezuela called Gran Sabana. A large area of this region (more than 3 million hectares) is included in the Canaima National Park, the largest national park in Venezuela and the sixth largest in the world. Gran Sabana means large plain (or savana) in Spanish, but the area's most famous feature is the dozens of exotic, sheer-cliffed, flat-topped mountains that rise from the middle of the plain. Named "Tepui" in the language of the local Indian tribe, these pink sandstone mesas are the product of millions of years of erosion, and contain unique flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world - frogs that don't jump and red carnivorous plants.
The most famous landmark of Gran Sabana is the highest tepui with an altitude of about 2800 meters. Fans of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believe that his science fiction novel The Lost World, about dinosaur hunters in the jungles of South America, was based on the first scientific expedition to Roraima. Angel Falls falls from the peak of Auyantepui (translated from the Pemon Indian language as “Devil’s Mountain”), one of the largest
Canaima serves as the starting point for a trip to Angel Falls. Situated on the edge of a lagoon (pictured), surrounded by pink-sand beaches, beautiful waterfalls and pristine jungle, the word “paradise” best describes the natural beauty of the area. Although it is possible to visit other waterfalls and lagoons from here, as well as climb the mesas' flat tops, the main reason tourists fly to Canaima for a few days is to see Angel Falls.
The tallest waterfall in the world is also one of the most difficult to reach. Venezuela did absolutely nothing to somehow develop this region. Its remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved the untouched nature of the area and made Angel Falls one of the most inaccessible tourist attractions in Venezuela. There is still no possibility of traveling by car, since most of the Canaima National Park has almost no roads. Small light aircraft runways connect this remote region to the outside world.
Most tourists visiting Angel Falls do so from an airplane window. Almost all flights to Canaima, both commercial and charter, fly near this waterfall. But given the fact that Angel falls from the wall of a steep canyon, often shrouded in clouds (especially during the rainy season), it is not always possible to see him. Moreover, even on a clear day, when the plane makes a couple of passes on each side, you can often inspect it briefly.
If you want to truly experience the magnificence of the world's tallest waterfall, then a boat trip is a must. Almost all hotels and tour companies in Canaima offer 1, 2 or 3 day tours. They all follow the same route, the only difference is the amount of time, which completely depends on the wishes of the visitors.
Angel Falls is located about a 5-hour canoe ride upriver from Canaima, followed by a trek through the jungle to its base (about an hour). The path to the waterfall from Canaima is an equally interesting part of the trip and provides an opportunity to get acquainted with unique species of Venezuelan flora and fauna and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the surrounding nature (pictured). If the water flow is quite moderate, you can swim in a small pond at the foot of the waterfall.
If you are interested in overnight accommodation for climbers, here is more information :-)
The waterfall is at its highest during the rainy season from May to November, but at this time of year clouds often obscure the summit of Auyantepui. During the dry season from December to April it looks less attractive.
In May 1956, Angel's light aircraft crashed in Panama. He escaped with a large abrasion on his forehead, everything seemed to be in order. A few days later he suffered a stroke and, without regaining consciousness, died in December of the same year at the age of 57. The pilot’s last wish was to request that his ashes be scattered over the Angel Falls he discovered.
In 1960, Maria (wife) and his 2 sons, Jimmy and Roland, took Angel to Venezuela. On his last flight over the waterfall, he was accompanied by his close friends Gustavo Heni and Patricia Grant. Henie later told his sister Carmen that "when the plane entered the canyon, nothing was visible because of the high clouds, then suddenly something happened. It became so clear, so beautiful, we could see everything. It looked like Mt. was taking something incomparable - it was Jimmy."
In 2009, President Hugo Chavez proposed that the nation's most famous landmark should now be named after an indigenous Venezuelan people rather than an American gringo. On December 20, 2009, the President of Venezuela signed a decree renaming Angel Falls to Kerepakupai Meru. But in other countries it is still called by its old name.
Did you find a little man on a rock here? :-)
The most vivid description of the waterfall - perhaps the best in world literature - belongs to the chairman of the Soviet Peace Committee Yu. A. Zhukov, who viewed Angel Falls from an airplane in April 1971. “The pilot is flying his plane close, close to it. In front of us is an incredibly high - per kilometer! - an elastic, foamy white column of water - a tight stream of flow falls from the plateau into the abyss, at the bottom of which the Churumi River is reborn, whose flow is interrupted by this crazy water jump... We have already heard and read that the height of the water fall is here. so great that the stream, without reaching the bottom of the abyss, turns into water dust, which settles on the stones as rain. But it was necessary to see this in order to imagine all the originality of the spectacle: somewhere below, about three hundred meters from the bottom of the abyss. a powerful, elastic, boiling stream suddenly seemed to melt and break off in the fog. And even lower, as if emerging from nothing, the river was seething... How I would like to approach the waterfall not by plane, but by land - to stand near it, listen to its roar, inhale the smell of water falling from the sky! But this is impossible..."
I highly recommend that you take a virtual tour to Angel Falls
Location: Venezuela on the Kerep River
Height: 979 m
Width: 107 m
Coordinates: 5°58"11.1"N 62°32"11.0"W
Short description
In eastern Venezuela, among the tropical forests of Canaima National Park, rises a massive flat-topped plateau, called Auyan Tepuy by local Indians, which means “Devil's Mountain”, or “Realm of the Thunder God”.
From this peak the tallest waterfall on the planet, the Angel Falls, pours its icy waters. Every second the waterfall passes through itself 300 cubic meters of water brought by the Churun River(“Thunder”), replenished by tropical showers. The river slowly meanders along a plateau riddled with cracks and ravines, collecting huge amounts of rainwater, but having reached a cliff on the northern slope, it sharply picks up speed and quickly falls down. The height of the fall is so great that the water does not have time to reach the ground and in flight is sprayed into tiny particles, enveloping the green sea of the jungle with fog. The waterfall falls from a height almost equal to three Eiffel Towers. The tallest skyscraper on Earth - Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828 m) - is lower than Angel Falls. The height of Angel in flood is 929 meters (according to other sources 1054 m).
Angel - James Falls
Angel Falls Located in the wild outback of Venezuela, Angel Falls has long been accessible only to the most desperate adventurers. But it has long been known to the local Pemon Indians under the name Kerepakupai-Meru (“Waterfall of the Deepest Place”). The Indians believed that an evil spirit lived on the plateau and stole the souls of people, and therefore the tribes never climbed to the top of Auyan Tepuy.
In 1933, American pilot James Angel flew over one of the most remote areas of the Guiana Highlands. The yellow-orange boulders and sediments of the Auyan Tepuy plateau glittered like gold in the sun. The pilot decided to get this gold. After 4 years, he returned again and tried to land at the top of the waterfall, but his Flamingo sports plane got stuck with its wheels in the mud. The gold miner and his companions had to descend on foot along slopes that were previously considered inaccessible.
The return to civilization took 11 days. There was no trace of gold, but the pilot discovered a waterfall falling down a sheer cliff and reported his discovery to the US National Geographic Society. The waterfall was named in honor of its “discoverer” - the surname Angel in Spanish pronunciation is read as Angel.
Canaima National Park - a comfortable journey into a lost world
Hundreds of excursions a year are organized to Angel Falls, and due to the inaccessibility of the place, preference is given to air walks. You can also get to the waterfall along the river: first by canoe to the village of Canaima, and then on foot for 2-3 km. A dirt road was built to Canaima, and a small airfield was installed nearby to serve tourists. It offers comfortable hotels, shops and bars. Angel Falls and the surrounding areas have retained the charm of a wild place. If you're lucky, during a plane ride you can see animals going to the river to drink.
The jungles of the national park are home to anteaters, porcupines, three-toed sloths, giant otters, deer, monkeys, jaguars, etc. The flora is also rich; the mountain slopes are full of orchids and bromeliads. Not far from Angel there is a picturesque lagoon called Canaima, into which water flows from the surrounding waterfalls. The largest of them is called Salto el Sapo, that is, “frog” in Spanish. The name is no coincidence: the frog is considered a symbol of life among the Warao Indians. Here, behind a wall of water, there is a huge grotto, where one of the most mesmerizing episodes of the film “The Last of the Mohicans” was filmed.
But it is the highest in the world - Angel’s water flow has to fly almost a kilometer to reach the ground! Angel Falls is 20 times higher than Niagara Falls!
Angel Falls(Angel Falls) or Salto Angel (Salto Angel) is the highest free-falling waterfall in the world with a height of 978 meters. The waterfall is located in the tropical forests of Venezuela, in the Canaima National Park. Water cascades from the top of Auyantepui, the largest of the Venezuelan tepuis - its name means “mountain of the devil” in Russian.
The height of the fall is so great that before reaching the ground, the water is sprayed into tiny particles and turns into fog. The fog can be felt even several kilometers from the waterfall!
The falling water flows into the Kerep River. Getting to the waterfall is not easy as it is located in a dense tropical forest. And there are no roads leading to it. You can only get there by air or river. Tours to the waterfall are sold in packages and include a flight from Caracas or Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima, a subsequent boat trip, food and other things needed to visit the waterfall.
Angel Falls cascades from the top of a flat mountain called tepui by the natives. The flat mountain called Auyan Tepuy (Devil's Mountain) is one of more than a hundred similar ones scattered across the Guiana Highlands in southeastern Venezuela. These slumbering giants are characterized by their massive heights that soar into the sky, with flat tops and completely vertical sides. Tepuis, also called "table mountains" (which accurately describes their shape), were formed from sandstone billions of years ago. Their vertical slopes are continuously destroyed under the influence of heavy rains falling on the Guiana Highlands.
The natives of Venezuela knew about Salto Angel from time immemorial. The falls were originally discovered in 1910 by a Spanish explorer named Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz. However, it was not known to the world until its official discovery by American aviator and gold prospector James Crawford Angel, after whom it was named. Angel was born in Springfield, Missouri in 1899.
James Angel flew over the area in 1935 and landed on the top of a lonely mountain in search of gold. His Flamingo monoplane was stuck in the swampy jungle at the top, and he noticed a rather impressive waterfall extending down thousands of feet. He had little luck on the 11-mile excursion back to civilization, and his plane remained chained to the mountain, a rusting monument to his discovery. Soon the whole world learned about the waterfall, which became known as Angel Falls, in honor of the pilot who discovered it.
Jimmy Angel's plane remained in the jungle for 33 years until it was recovered by helicopter. It is currently housed in the Aviation Museum in Maracay.
The official height of the waterfall was determined by an expedition of the National Geographic Society in 1949. The waterfall is the main attraction of Venezuela.
On December 20, 2009, on his weekly show, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, in the wake of anti-imperialism, renamed Angel Falls in Kerepakupai-meru, according to one of its local names. Initially, the name Churun-meru was proposed, but the President's daughter noticed that one of the smallest waterfalls in this area had this name, after which Chavez suggested a different name. The President explained this decision by saying that the waterfall was the property of Venezuela and part of its national wealth long before James Angel appeared, and the waterfall should not bear his name. However, this does not mean that it will also be renamed on world maps)
Angel Falls: luxurious and majestic
Angel Falls, also called Salto Angela, is known as the highest waterfall in the world. It differs significantly from its other famous “brothers” - Niagara, Victoria and Iguazu. Angel is much more modest than them in such an indicator as the volume of water passed through. But the height of its free fall - 978 meters - allows us to characterize Angel as the largest waterfall in the world.
Angel Falls - photo
Angel Falls - photo
History of discovery
Angel Falls received its name in honor of the American pilot James Angel, who in 1935 saw a stream of water falling from a height of more than a thousand meters from an airplane. James was not going to discover anything; he was looking for gold, but due to an accident he made an emergency landing in the jungle of the Guiana Highlands. The discovery of the waterfall became a kind of compensation for him for the plane, which had to be left to rot in a tropical swamp, and for the journey through the jungle to civilization. These eleven miles were not the most pleasant of his life.
Angel Falls - photo
Angel Falls - photo
But, as often happens, Angel was far from the first person to see this miracle of nature, and not even the first European. The Indians knew about it long before Columbus sailed his caravels across the Atlantic Ocean. It was they who gave the name “tepui” to the mountains characteristic of the Guiana Highlands. They all have vertical slopes and flat tops, like Table Mountain near Cape Town. Tepuis are constantly subject to water erosion due to tropical rainfall, characteristic of the climate of this area. The name of the mountain from which the stream falls remains Indian. "Auyantepui" translated from one of the local dialects means "devil's mountain".
Aboriginal stories brought the Spanish conquistador Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz to these lands. But its discovery was safely forgotten until 1935.
Angel Falls - photo
Angel Falls - photo
Location and road to Angel
Angel Falls is located in Venezuela, in the Canaima Park. If Niagara and Victoria are easily accessible to tourists, they have convenient roads, and hotels are built nearby, then it is much more difficult to see the “Angel’s Flip”. Roads simply do not exist in the tropical jungle - movement is only possible by water or air. To see the largest waterfall with your own eyes, you need to travel by plane from the capital of Venezuela, Caracas. There are also regular flights from Ciudad Bolivar to Canaima, and then you have to take a boat trip. The cost of the tour usually includes the necessary equipment, equipment and food costs.
Angel Falls - photo
Those who want to see this wonder of the world have to put up with the need to get wet from the fog. Water, falling from a great height, is dispersed into tiny particles and it is in this form that it enters the Kerep River.
Any schoolchild knows in which country Angel Falls is located. This natural site has been declared a national treasure of Venezuela. Its height was measured in 1949, and in 1968, James Angel's plane was removed from the jungle using a helicopter and solemnly placed in a museum. Those wishing to see this relic should go to the city of Maracay and visit the local aviation museum.
This is the highest waterfall on Earth. The height of the waterfall is 979 meters. Angel is so high that the water does not reach the bottom. While still in the air, it turns into fog, which can be felt several kilometers before the waterfall. Whatever reaches the bottom will end up in the Kerep River. The waterfall is located in wild places and can only be reached by river or air.
Angel on the map:
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The question may arise as to where the sheer cliff almost 1000 meters high came from. The waterfall falls from Auyantepui, which is the largest tepui in Venezuela. There are many tepuis between the Amazon, Orinoco and Rio Negro rivers. They are the remnants of a vast plateau and were formed as a result of its erosion. Typically, tepuis consist of a single block of Precambrian sandstone or quartzite. They rise above the surrounding jungle to a height of more than 2000 meters. It was thanks to this natural miracle that the formation of the largest waterfall in the world, the Angel, became possible.
Rainbow at Angel Falls, photo.
Anhal was named after its discoverer, pilot James Angel. He flew over the falls in 1933. The purpose of his flight over Auyantepuyeim was to search for diamonds. An attempt to land on Tepui ended in the plane breaking down. It took Angel 11 days to reach civilization. He didn’t find any diamonds, but he immortalized his name by giving it to the highest waterfall in the world.
Thus, Angel has nothing in common with the Angels, although the local Indians consider tepuis the home of the gods... It was named so simply in honor of its discoverer, although a little twisted in the Spanish manner.
The waterfall is often difficult to see because of the clouds, so travelers are faced with a dilemma: visit the waterfall during the dry season (December-March), when it is not so full of water, but there is less chance of getting caught in fog, or take a risk, but see Angel in all its glory. more beautiful
Interesting Facts:
1) The plane remained at the crash site, only 33 years later it was lowered down using a helicopter. Today the plane stands in front of the airport in Ciudad Bolivar.
2) The height of the waterfall was determined only in 1949.
3) The waterfall is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site
4) The first ascent of the waterfall wall was made only in 2005. One of the seven climbers was Russian.
5) Angel Falls officially no longer exists. In 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez renamed it Kerepakupai-meru.
How to get there: Angel Falls is located in the middle of a wild jungle, so the best way to visit the falls is by air, just like Angel did, or by the Kerep River.
Kerep River
Video: “Angel Falls -Salto Angel”
Video: “Venezuela, flight over Angel Falls, Salto Angel, Venezuela.”