An
UNESCO's World Heritage Site
The
Lost World Region is located in the heart of southern
Venezuela’s Bolivar State, where the Guayana Shield
forms a unique landscape unlike any other place on earth.
Encompassed by the borders of Canaima National Park (the
largest and most famous national park in Venezuela, sixth
largest in the world), this is an ancient, prehistoric
world of gigantic sandstone mesas, known as tabletop mountains
or tepuis by the local Pemon Indians. These tepuis tower
majestically over the rolling hills of the Gran Sabana
(a mixture of interspersed jungle and savanna grassland)
with steep sides surrounded by dense jungle and rolling
grasslands dotted with palms. The area inspired famous
explorer and writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic
novel, "The Lost World"; even today, with many
secrets yet to be discovered, is still shrouded in mystery
and myth.
Larger
than some countries (7,410,000 acres) Canaima
National Park is a beautiful, haunting land dominated
by tabletop mountains, primeval jungle, and cascading
waterfalls. At over 1.8 billion years old, these are the
world’s oldest and some of it's most impressive landforms.
Found in a region whose interior is almost totally inaccessible,
Canaima also represents a great bastion of undisturbed
wilderness. Atop each tepui, life has evolved in independent
isolation where unique ecosystems whose family of flora
and fauna are found nowhere else on the planet. Surrounded
by dense jungle and existing as one of the largest, oldest
mesas in the world, Roraima
and Auyan
Tepui is a destination for trekking adventures.
Bolivar State is the largest in Venezuela
and its capital city is Ciudad Bolivar. Another important
city located here is Ciudad Guayana, formed by the union
of San Felix (an old colonial outpost) and Puerto Ordaz,
Venezuela’s newest city, where most of the metal
manufacturing units, such as iron and steel, are located.
Angel
Falls, the world’s largest waterfall, is twice
the height of the Empire State building, plunging 3,212
ft from the top of the Auyan-tepui to the dense jungle
below. This remote area became known in 1935 when Jimmy
Angel, an American bush pilot in search of diamonds and
gold, instead discovered something even more precious--one
of the eight wonders of the world. Flying through this
region, you will see many other spectacular tepuis and
falls, many of them still without name. For more information
about Angel
Falls, read an article about discoverer, Jimmy Angel
and the Falls.
Access
to the Gran Sabana is by air on daily scheduled flights
from Caracas,
Ciudad Bolivar, Puerto Ordaz and Santa Elena de Uairen
to Canaima. Santa Elena de Uairen is the gateway to treks
to the top of the Roraima Tepui. Running from north to
south, a good paved road links Ciudad Bolivar and Puerto
Ordaz with Santa Elena de Uairen, located near the border
with Brazil. For the most remote Indian camps, settlements
and communities it is possible to charter a plane. Some
Lost World rivers also serve as water highways during
certain parts of the year.
Contact
us to include the Lost
World of the Gran
Sabana in a customized itinerary of travel to Venezuela.
