Kaieteur is the world's largest single drop

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...

. Located on the Potaro River in the

Kaieteur National Park Kaieteur National Park is a national park located in the Potaro-Siparuni Region of Guyana. The Park's boundaries and purpose are defined in the Kaieteur National Park Act, and was created to preserve the natural scenery (including Kaieteur Falls) ...

, it sits in a section of the Amazon rainforest included in the

Potaro-Siparuni Potaro-Siparuni (Region 8) is a region of Guyana. Venezuela claims the majority of the Region located west of the Essequibo River as part of Guayana Esequiba. It borders the region of Cuyuni-Mazaruni to the north, the regions of Upper Demerara- ...

region of Guyana. It is 226 metres (741 ft) high when measured from its plunge over a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...

and conglomerate cliff to the first break. It then flows over a series of steep cascades that, when included in the measurements, bring the total height to 251 metres (822 ft). While many falls have greater height, few have the combination of height and water volume, and Kaieteur is among the most powerful waterfalls in the world with an average flow rate of 663 cubic metres per second (23,400 cubic feet per second). Kaieteur Falls is about four and a half times the height of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls () is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Fall ...

, on the border between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and about twice the height of

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and anim ...

, on the border of

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

and

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It is a single drop waterfall. Upriver from the falls, the Potaro Plateau stretches out to the distant

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

of the

Pakaraima Mountains The Pacaraima or Pakaraima Mountains ( pt, Serra de Pacaraima, es, Sierra de Pacaraima) are a mountain range primarily in southwestern Guyana, and into northern Brazil and eastern Venezuela. Geography The range extends from west to east for over ...

. The Potaro River empties into the

Essequibo River The Essequibo River ( Spanish: ''Río Esequibo'' originally called by Alonso de Ojeda ''Río Dulce'') is the largest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil–Guyana b ...

which is the 34th longest river in South America and the longest river in Guyana.

History and discovery

The falls were rediscovered by Europeans in 1870 by a party led by

Charles Barrington Brown Charles Barrington Brown (23 August 1839, Cape Breton Island – 13 February 1917, London) was a Canadian geologist and explorer. On April 24, 1870, he was one of two English-based geologists appointed government surveyors to the colony of Brit ...

, a British geologist appointed as a government surveyor to the colony of British Guiana. Brown and his partner James Sawkins had arrived in Georgetown in 1867, and while they did some of their mapping and preparation of geological reports together, some work was performed in separate expeditions, and Sawkins was taking a break from his work at the time of Brown's discovery of Kaieteur. At this point, Brown did not have time to investigate Kaieteur Falls closely, so he returned one year later to make comprehensive measurements. Brown’s book ''Canoe and Camp life in British Guiana'' was published in 1876. Two years later, in 1878, he published ''Fifteen Thousand Miles on the Amazon and its tributaries''. According to a

Patamona The Patamona are an Amerindian people native to the Pakaraima Mountains of Guyana and northern Brazil.Patamon ...

Indian legend, Kaieteur Falls was named for Kai, a chief, or Toshao who acted to save his people by paddling over the falls in an act of self-sacrifice to Makonaima, the great spirit. Another legend though was told to Brown by Amerindians in the night of discovery of falls: Kaieteur has been named after an unpleasant old man who was placed in a boat and shoved in the fall by his relatives. Thus, the fall was named "Kaieteur", which means "old-man-fall".

Tourism

Kaieteur Falls is a major tourist attraction in Guyana. It is in Kaieteur National Park in the centre of Guyana's rainforest. The park is served by

Kaieteur International Airport Kaieteur Airport is an airport serving Kaieteur National Park in the Potaro-Siparuni region of Guyana. The airport is less than west of Kaieteur Falls. Airlines and destinations See also * * *Transport in Guyana *List of airports in Guy ...

, about a 15-minute walk from the top of Kaieteur falls, with frequent flights to

Ogle Airport Eugene F. Correia International Airport is located on the Atlantic Ocean coast of Guyana, east of the capital, Georgetown, in the Demerara-Mahaica region. In 2013, LIAT began scheduled passenger airline flights between the airport and Barb ...

and Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Georgetown.

Popular culture

Kaieteur Falls is featured in: * the documentary film ''

The White Diamond ''The White Diamond'' is a 2004 documentary film by Werner Herzog. It illustrates the history of aviation and depicts the struggles and triumphs of Graham Dorrington, an aeronautical engineer, who has designed and built a teardrop-shaped airshi ...

'' by

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with u ...

and Animal Planet's ''

River Monsters ''River Monsters'' is a British and United States, American wildlife Documentary film, documentary Television show, television programme produced for Animal Planet by Icon Films of Bristol, United Kingdom. It is hosted by extreme Angling, ang ...

'' with Jeremy Wade. * the science fiction animation television series ''

G Gundam ''Mobile Fighter G Gundam'', also known in Japan as (and commonly referred to as simply ''G Gundam''), is a 1994 Japanese animated television series produced by Sunrise and the fifth installment in the long-running ''Gundam'' franchis ...

''. The lead character trains and bathes under the falls before his final fight. * the opening of the fourth season credits of the Discovery Channel's series "Gold Rush" (2013). It also features in the body of a few episodes of that season. * episode 6 of David Attenborough's series '' Life on Earth'' in which the native frogs, which thrive in the moist conditions, are discussed. * episode 1 of Steve Backshall's series '' Deadly Adventures'' where Steve abseils to the bottom and camps overnight. * the ending of the final episode of the fourth season of ''

'' features the falls. *

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires '' Decl ...

’s 1934 travel book, ''Ninety-two Days''.

Gallery

Image:Kaiteur September 2007.JPG, Kaieteur Falls September 2007 Image:Kaieteur Falls Guyana (2) 2007.jpg, Kaietur Falls in the Dry Season, Feb 2007 File:Kaieteur-falls.JPG File:Kaieteur Falls.JPG File:Kaieteur Falls pose longue.jpg

References

External links

{{commons category
Kaieteur National Park
home to the Kaieteur Falls.
Kaieteur Falls
at Beautiful World Waterfalls of Guyana Potaro-Siparuni Tourist attractions in Guyana Geological type localities Superlatives