Angel falls, is the world’s highest waterfall, 16 times that of Niagara. The water drops 3,211 feet into the Devils Canyon below. There are no land trails through the forest, the main way in is via a canoe upriver.

The falls are sometimes referred to as Churun-meru, an error, since that name corresponds to another waterfall in the Canaima National Park. Churun in the Pemon language means “thunder.

Sir Walter Raleigh described what was possibly a tepuy and he is sometimes said to have discovered Angel Falls, but these claims are considered “far-fetched”. They were sighted in 1912 by the Venezuelan explorer Ernesto Sanchez La Cruz, but he did not publicize his discovery. They were not known to the outside world until the American aviator James “Jimmie” Crawford Angel flew over them on 16 November 1933 on a flight while he was searching for a valuable ore bed.