Mount Roraima in Venezuela – description, photo, how to get there, map
High in the sky there is an island that seems to be floating in the clouds. His landscapes look so unreal that it seems as if it is another planet. Rocks of bizarre shapes and huge threads of waterfalls, stone placers and reservoirs of different colors, outlandish plants and unusual animals. This is the table mountain of Roraima in South America. She is constantly surrounded by a cloud, so she looks like an island floating in the sky.
How did this miracle of nature come about?
Canteens are called mountains, the tops of which are not pointed, but flat, like a table. And their walls are almost vertical. Such mountains are typical of the Guiana Highlands, and here they are called tepui. They arose from the huge size of the sandstone plateau, which in ancient times stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the basins of three rivers: the Orinoco, the Amazon and the Rio Negro. Over the centuries, the plateau has been eroded and gradually destroyed.
All that is left of him is tepui. It is possible that these mountains are the oldest on our planet. Roraima is the highest mesas in Venezuela. It seems that it is carved from a rock monolith. Its walls rise more than a thousand meters above the Great Savannah. The highest point is at an altitude of 1810 m, huge cracks radiate from it.
For more information about the Canaima National Park in Venezuela, read our article. In addition to Mount Roraima, there are many other unique attractions here.
Venezuela accounts for three-quarters of the mountain, and it is here that the gentle slope is located. This is where the climbs to Roraima begin. The rest with steep slopes is located on the territory of two other countries: Brazil and Guyana.
Where the gods live
The table mountains turned out to be a convenient place for the gods to live. After all, translated from the local dialect, tepui means “house of the gods.” Mount Roraima has always been of particular importance to the inhabitants of the Great Savannah. And many myths and legends were composed about it. According to one of the legends, it is believed that a huge tree grew on the site of the mountain, from which all the fruits on earth went. But one of the heroes of myths cut it down, leaving only a stump in the form of Mount Roraima. According to another legend, a goddess named Queen lived upstairs, from whom the human race began.
Roraima translates as “great blue-green mountain”. She has always been shrouded in mystery. Only a few daredevils tried to climb it. The indigenous people of the savannah do not do this, fearing the wrath of evil spirits. Moreover, these places are called cursed. And there is a reason for this: the plateau constantly attracts lightning. The entire surface of the mountain is dotted with their blows.
Visiting a fairy tale
Roraima is always surrounded by clouds, through which the outlines of the cliffs are visible. This amazing picture creates a certain mystery and excites the imagination of travelers.
At the top, the feeling that you are in a science fiction film, a fairy tale or on another planet does not leave. Everything looks so unreal. Rocks of the most unusual and amazing shapes amaze the imagination. Some of them look like strange mushrooms, others look like fairytale castles and unusual figures. Sometimes there are placers of stones that seem to have arrived from other planets. Somewhere you can see huge crevices into which several rivers merge. Long streams of water fall from high rocks. Due to constant rains and high humidity, the surface of these rocks is covered with small algae, so they turn black. And where there are no algae, the true color of sandstone appears – bright pink. This gives the landscape an even more unrealistic look.
One fifth of the plateau's surface is water. Rivers, the bottom of which sparkles with the radiance of rock crystal, puddles of an extraordinary bright pink color, clear lakes with clear water, peat bogs. There are even small ponds in the form of bathtubs and jacuzzis.
These cosmic landscapes have inspired many filmmakers to use them in films and cartoons. Like, for example, Steven Spielberg, who filmed the science fiction film Jurassic Park on Roraima.
When to go
The higher you climb the mountain, the colder and wetter it gets. In the mornings, the temperature can drop to 0 degrees, despite the warm tropical climate below. It often rains on the plateau, sometimes for several days in a row. The rainy season lasts from May to October. During this period of time, there is a risk of seeing only fog on the mountain. But there are few tourists and many flowers, especially orchids.
Wonderful world of plants and animals
Most of the flora and fauna are endemic. That is, those who live directly in this limited area and develop in isolation from the rest. Therefore, they are as unusual as the local landscapes. Due to the frequent rains that wash away the soil, there is not much vegetation. There are only islands of greenery with small trees similar to bonsai. In peat bogs, you can see outlandish flowers, moss carpets and plants that eat insects. The slopes of the mountain are decorated with ferns and gunners that look like huge burdocks.
The animal world is represented by lizards and scorpions, mice and noses, leeches and spiders. Many of them, including insects, are black in color. The most amazing are stone frogs. They are very small – literally a little over a centimeter. They do not jump, as usual, but crawl. But if on the way there is a danger in the form of a spider or a scorpion, then they fall down like a stone. They also know how to whistle before the rain.
Secrets of table mountain
For a long time, Roraima remained an unexplored land. Few dared to climb to the top. Yes, and it was not easy to do this due to the fact that the slopes of the mountain are vertical, and they are surrounded by dense tropical forests. Only a few brave Indians made the difficult path through enchanted forests and impenetrable swamps. And then they talked about extraordinary lands with colored waters in the rivers. All this seemed incredible, and no one took these stories seriously.
It also happened to European explorers, who first officially began to study this area in 1835. These were the scientists Robert Schomburk and Yves Cerne. The public laughed at them. And she took as fiction reports that contained descriptions of rivers with colored water, unusual animals and plants. The same thing happened with subsequent expeditions. Who could believe in such a fairy tale?
But these studies inspired the famous writer Arthur Conan Doyle. And he wrote the fantastic work “The Lost World”. True, he also settled dinosaurs in these places. Only in the 1960s were the works of the next expedition to Roraima seriously studied. This time, the participants met giant ants, black frogs that hatched eggs, a huge 15-meter snake with a strange head shape.
At one site of unknown purpose, a strange metal powder was found. His chemical analysis showed that it is impossible to obtain such a substance under terrestrial conditions. Therefore, there is a version of space aliens. In confirmation of this, in the labyrinths of quartz caves on Roraima, there are rock paintings depicting strange animals and even humanoids. So the mountain still has many secrets.
How to get to the mountain
Many adventurers come to Venezuela to see this wonderful world with their own eyes. And who can resist such a temptation how to get into a completely different reality without leaving our planet?
Dozens of tourists climb the mountain every day. Since Roraima is part of the Canaima National Park, you can only climb it with a guide. One is not allowed, it is too risky. During the ascent, you can get into a dense fog of high density, so you need to be careful.
The porters are Pemon Indians, very friendly and sociable locals. They carry tents, food, and you only carry personal belongings. The Indians also cook food, bring tourists down if there is a need to return. You can also carry all the equipment yourself, then the rise will cost less.
The journey begins in the Indian village of Paratepuy. The hike lasts 5-7 days. Somewhere you have to wade through rivers, somewhere through waterfalls. The actual ascent begins on the third day.
To feel the mountain, you need to really “take” it. The effort you put in will pay off handsomely. After all, you will find yourself in a different world, surrounded by bizarre life forms that you have not met before. You will feel like one of the gods living on the mountain. See how the island soars in the clouds. And take photos that will remind you of illustrations for science fiction books. Only the main character in these pictures will be you.