Monday, November 28, 2005

Churún Merú or ANGEL Falls - World's highest waterfall

In total it is 15 times higher than Niagara Falls with a total of 3212 feet.
In the western part of Canaima National Park, is the Auyantepuy, one of the largest and better known "tepuy" (A flat top mountain ending with vertical walls). Angel Falls - spills from the Auyantepui into what is known as the Devil's canyon 979 Meters below. The indigenous people call it Kerepakupai-merú. It is located in the Guayana highlands, one of five topographical regions of Venezuela. It plunges off the edge of a "tepui", or table-top mountain, and falls to the river below, making it the tallest waterfalls on earth. The waters fall freely some 807 meters (2,648 feet) and reach the bottom of the valley as a misty spray that gathers into a small creek which eventually finds its way into the north-bound Churun River. The original name of this "Highest Waterfall" is Churún Merú or Kerepakupai-merú and is known to the local Indians for a long time. (I really wonder, whether these Indians were influenced by Hindus of India!? 'Meru' is a Sanskrit word for Mountain and som many mountains of India have names ending with Meru) But the rest of the world was not aware of it till 1933! American aviator jimmy angel first saw the falls in 1933 while searching for a valuable ore bed. He returned in 1937 with his wife, Gustavo Heny and Heny's gardener, and landed on top of the tepui. His Falamingo monoplane settled down into the marshy ground atop Auyan-tepui and remained there for 33 years before being lifted out by a helicopter. Jimmy Angel and his three comapnions managed to descend the tepui and make their way back to civilization in 11 days. And since then it has been named after him as "Angel Falls"!

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