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What Is the Highest Waterfall in the World?

Angel Falls, now officially renamed Kerepakupai Meru, is the highest waterfall in the world.

Although Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall is located in southeastern Venezuela, it owes its name to an American explorer, James Angel.  This U.S. adventurer crash-landed his plane on a nearby mesa in 1937, and even perhaps if his last name had not been Angel, the naming of the falls would have in some way taken its cue from the divine providence that allowed him to survive the accident.

Angel Falls Official ‘New' Name

In 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez decreed that Angel Falls should henceforth be known by the indigenous name of Kerepakupai Meru. But that is unlikely to stick, partly because the name Angel Falls connotes a sense of wonder and visions of a tropical paradise. From top to bottom, Angel Falls measures 3,212 feet. At this natural marvel's base, the water reaches an astonishing width of 500 feet.

Angel Falls Location

Angel Falls is part of the Guinea Highlands, a South American plateau and low-mountain region wedged in-between the Amazon rainforest and the Orinoco River. This geological formation also extends into parts of Colombia, Brazil and all of the Guinea territories.

Capitalistic Enterprises Involving Angel Falls

Although Angel Falls would seem to be a perfect backdrop for movie-making, its remote location and the fact that the current Venezuelan regime is seen as potentially inhospitable to outside capitalistic enterprises has severely limited the on-location use of the waterfall.  The most famous English-language movie to have shot scenes at Angel Falls is the 1990 Steve Spielberg production, Arachnophobia.

And thanks to a new Life Magazine application for the iPad, a whole new generation of non-travelers is about to discover the wonder of Angel Falls.  Transposing to the device's landscape mode a recent issue entitled "Wonders of the World", the applet works features a thumbnail index of Angel Falls and other celebrated landmarks such as Stonehenge and the Egyptian Pyramids.