The Tepuis is a mountain range of flat mountains in the Guayana Plateau in South America. Most of the Tepuis range is located on Venezuelan territory, the most famous of which is Mount Roraima, whose natural slopes and flat top are 31 square kilometers, with vertical cliffs 400 meters high. This is also the highest mountain in South America in the Pakaraimab Plateau.
The geographical topography of the Tepuis range is very special, it also possesses thousands of unique plant species that we cannot find anywhere else on Earth. And these mysterious mountains have fascinated writers and explorers for centuries. In 1912 Mount Roraima became famous, writer Conan Doyle published a fiction book called "The Lost World" about the journey of an expedition team in search of dinosaurs and prehistoric plants. It is said to have been preserved by nature for millions of years on this mountain top. To this day, there are people who believe that it is possible that dinosaurs really lived there…
Roraima Mountains. (Photo: Sunsnowgo)
A world full of mysteries
With the exception of the Pemón natives, the area of Mount Roraima was once impregnable to the rest of the world. This place is truly a forgotten land. This plateau was formed when South America was still conjoined with Africa to create the supercontinent Gondwana, probably about 250-400 million years ago. This mountain is one of the remnants after the faulting process of a sandstone plateau, combined with wind blowing and flowing water, which has eroded the large plateau into mountain ranges. About 20 million years ago the mountain took the shape it is now.
Most of the parts in the Tepuis range are separate rather than seamless. So each mountain is a "kingdom" with an independent ecosystem. It is speculated that at least "half of the 10,000 plant species estimated here" are unique to the Tepuis Range and surrounding area.
Many creatures are still being discovered. Although all of the mountains here have been conquered by humans, only a few have been fully explored. This means that species thought to have gone extinct hundreds of millions of years ago, even dinosaurs, could still exist on these remote plateaus that humans have yet to fully explore.
White clouds float around the Roraima Mountains. (Photo: Miriadna)
The Roraima Plateau is truly remote and unique enough for writer Conan Doyle to use it as a place to create a living world of dinosaurs and prehistoric plants in his novel "The Lost World." your. In fact, Doyle was mesmerized by the adventure story of British botanist Everard Im Thurn, who climbed Mount Roraima in December 1884.
In 1989, Uwe George, a German explorer with the National Geographic Society, said of climbing Roraima: “None of us followed Im Thurn to Roraima and discovered primitive or chemical creatures. Their fossils are there, but the terrain is very rugged, so only a very small part of Tepui - about 70 square kilometers - has been discovered so far."
Sacred land
Before the arrival of Europeans, the natives of Venezuela considered the Tepuis range to have special mythological significance. According to the indigenous Pemón people, the mountains of Roraima were the root of the great tree that once contained all the fruits and vegetables of the world, however, it was cut down by one of their ancestors, when the tree was no more, a terrible flood happened. It is believed that, if someone dares to climb to the top of Tepuis, that person will not return with his life.
Crystal mountain and diamond sparkling waterfall
The climb to Tepuis is extremely difficult and even more treacherous because the frequent rains here make the stone paths slippery and muddy. In 1595, Walter Raleigh, the first European explorer to write about Tepuis during his search for the Guiana Empire, told his colleagues about a crystal-clear mountain and compared it to a tall church tower. He wrote about a crystal mountain covered by a waterfall that sparkled like diamonds:
“A great river flows down from above without touching the cliffs, the water splashes into the air and hits the bottom causing it to roar and resound like the pounding of thousands of giant bells. I believe that there is no bigger and more magical waterfall in the world.
It is very likely that he described Angel Falls, which is named after an American named Jimmie Angel. He was the first person to fly over this area in the middle of the 20th century. Not only that, Mount Roraima and Angel waterfall here are also the ideas for the image of "Heavenly Waterfall" in the famous animated movie "Up". ” won two Oscars in 2009 in the categories of best animated film and best soundtrack.
The image of "Heavenly Waterfall" in the famous cartoon "Up". (Photo via Ancient Origins)
Although today, tourists may not encounter dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, they can see giant black frogs and spiders, which do not exist anywhere else in the world. planets except Tepuis. It is believed that there are still many other species of creatures unique to Roraima that have yet to be discovered.
