Cerro Marahuaca, also spelled Marahuaka (

Ye'kuana The Ye'kuana, also called Ye'kwana, Ye'Kuana, Yekuana, Yequana, Yecuana, Dekuana, Maquiritare, Makiritare, So'to or Maiongong, are a Cariban-speaking tropical rain-forest tribe who live in the Caura River and Orinoco River regions of Venezuela ...

: ), is a

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran S ...

in Amazonas state,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. It has an elevation of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

and is the second-highest mountain of the entire

Guayana Shield The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...

(after the

Cerro de la Neblina Cerro de la Neblina (lit. "Mountain of the Mist"), also known as Serra da Neblina in Brazil and Sierra de la Neblina in Venezuela, is a sandstone massif located in the northern Amazon Basin. It is a tilted, heavily eroded plateau, with a deep ca ...

complex).Huber, O. (1995). Geographical and physical features. In: P.E. Berry, B.K. Holst & K. Yatskievych (eds.) '' Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana. Volume 1. Introduction.'' Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. pp. 1–61. Cerro Marahuaca shares a common base with the much larger

Cerro Duida Cerro Duida, named Yennamadi by the Ye'kuana, ye'kwana, is a very large tepui in Amazonas, Venezuela, Amazonas state, Venezuela. It has an uneven and heavily inclined plateau, rising from highs of around in the north and east to a maximum of on ...

and together they form the Duida–Marahuaca Massif. Both tepuis are located entirely within the bounds of Duida–Marahuaca National Park. Cerro Marahuaca actually consists of two summit plateaus, the slightly larger northern one going by the Yekwana

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

name Fufha or Huha (). The southern plateau () is known by two local names; its northwestern edge is called Fuif or Fhuif, whereas its southeastern portion is called Atahua'shiho or Atawa Shisho. A massive ridge known as Cerro Petaca rises to at least just west of these two plateaus. In 1973, the Italian expeditioner Walter Bonatti attempted to climb Cerro Marahuaca without success. The first recorded ascent of Cerro Marahuaca dates back to 1984 on its Southwest face by Venezuelan climbers Luis Enrique (Kike) Arnal, Ramón Blanco, Manuel Guariguata and José Luis Pereyra. Cerro Marahuaca has a total summit area of and an estimated slope area of .

Flora and fauna

Several frog species are only known from the summit of Cerro Marahuaca, including '' Pristimantis marahuaka'', '' Metaphryniscus sosai'', and ''

Myersiohyla inparquesi ''Myersiohyla inparquesi'' is a species of frog in the family Hylidae. It appears to be endemic to the summit of Cerro Marahuaca, a tepui in central Amazonas state, Venezuela. Its natural habitats are tepui shrub and forests. Tadpole A t ...

''.

Flora and fauna

See also

References

Further reading