Photo credit: Jeppe Klockareson/Flicker
Kaieteur Falls is a waterfall on the Potaro River in central Essequibo Territory, Guyana. It is located in Kaieteur National Park. It is 226 metres (741 ft) high when measured from its plunge over a sandstone 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 the falls are among the most powerful waterfalls in the world with an average flow rate of 663 cubic metres per second.
Kaieteur Falls is about four times higher than Niagara Falls, located on the border between Canada and the United States and about two times the height of the Victoria Falls located on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa. It is a single drop waterfall which is the 123rd tallest (single and multi-drop waterfall) in the world, according to the World Waterfall Database. The same web site lists it as 19th largest waterfall in terms of volume, and in their estimation, Kaieteur is the 26th most scenic waterfall in the world .
DISCOVERY
On 24 April 1870, Charles Barrington Brown, one of two British geologists appointed government surveyors to the colony of British Guiana (now known as Guyana), became the first European to see Kaieteur Falls. The other surveyor was James Sawkins. Brown and James Sawkins arrived in Georgetown in 1867 and did some of their mapping and preparation of geological reports together, some in separate expeditions, but Sawkins had taken a break from his work when Brown came upon Kaieteur.
Source: Jeppe Klockareson/Flicker
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