Kerepakupai Vená, or more commonly known as Angel Falls, is located in Canaima National Park, Venezuela. This immensely large waterfall flows from the mesa mountain tops, pouring into the dense jungles of the Venezuelan national park. “Now Nate, why is this waterfall so important to you?!” you might be asking. Well, I’m obviously going to tell you.

Not only is this waterfall located in one of the most beautiful national parks in South America (and the world for that matter), but it is also the largest waterfall in the world. The world’s largest uninterrupted waterfall plunges water 3,212 feet, almost 2/3 of a mile in height. The water falls over the edge of the Auyantepui Mountain (“tepuy” is flat mountain top ending in a vertical drop off, translating “house of gods”) into the Gauja River, inevitably flowing into the Carrao River at the southeast corner of the nation. From afar the waterfall appears as one great fall, but after a closer examination, the water flows through a maze of canyons, tunnels, and caves before finally ending in a below water run-off.

Although Angel Falls seems like a fitting name given to this monstrous natural phenomenon, it was actually named for the American aviator, Jimmie Angel, who flew through the Venezuelan fog for miles in search of a valuable ore bed until finally coming across this beautiful panoramic spectacle in the 1930s. The falls accurately adopted Angel’s name, yet Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez found this disrespectful to the natives who named this waterfall hundreds of years before any American laid eyes on it. Because of the mountain’s vast height, the only source of water the falls receive is from rainfall, therefore in the dry season (December-March) the waterfall may consist of only trickles of water dropping thousands of feet, when in the wet seasons the waterfall will blasts thousands of gallons of water a day from its peak. This colossal waterfall is a monument of nature’s enormity of beauty.