Venezuela is the Amazon Basin country home to Angel Falls, the world’s highest uninterrupted waterfall.
Angel Falls, known locally as Kerepakupai Merú, descends from Auyán-tepui in Venezuela’s Guiana Highlands. Its total height is about 979 metres, including a main uninterrupted drop of about 807 metres. The water falls from a flat-topped tepui, a distinctive plateau formed from ancient sandstone.
The waterfall is inside Canaima National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name Angel Falls became widely used after American aviator Jimmy Angel flew over the falls in the 1930s, although the Indigenous Pemon people knew the site long before that. Angel Falls is not on the main Amazon River, but Venezuela’s southern drainage belongs to the broader Amazon watershed in parts of the country. That distinction separates the waterfall’s location from the river basin’s central channel.