The Kaieteur Falls, five times higher than Niagara Falls

Kaieteur Falls, cataract on the Potaro River, west-central Guyana. After a sheer drop of 226 meters over the edge of a sandstone plateau, the falls have eroded a gorge, 8 km long, that descends another 25 meters.

The falls are 90 to 105 meters wide at the top and are the central feature of the Kaieteur National Park (established 1930). Tourists usually visit the site by chartered aircraft from Georgetown, but a road and river expedition is also possible. The falls were sighted by C. Barrington Brown, a British geologist, in 1870.