Tugela Falls
| Tugela Falls | |
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Tugela Falls
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| Location | KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
| Coordinates | 28°45′08″S 28°53′39″E / 28.7522°S 28.8941°ECoordinates: 28°45′08″S 28°53′39″E / 28.7522°S 28.8941°E |
| Elevation | 2,972 m (9,751 ft) |
| Total height | 948 m (3,110 ft) |
| Number of drops | 5 |
| Longest drop | 411 m (1,348 ft) |
| Watercourse | Tugela River |
| World height ranking | 2 |
Tugela Falls is a complex of seasonal waterfalls located in the Drakensberg (Dragon's Mountains) of Royal Natal National Park in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Republic of South Africa. It is generally accepted as the world's second-tallest waterfall but there is an argument that it is actually the tallest waterfall in the world, rather than Venezuela's Angel Falls.
The combined total drop of its five distinct free-leaping falls is 948 m (3,110 ft). In 2016, however, a Czech scientific expedition took new measuments, making the falls 983 m tall. The data were sent to the World Waterfall Database for confirmation. The source of the Tugela River (Zulu for 'sudden') is the Mont-Aux-Sources plateau which extends several kilometers beyond The Amphitheatre escarpment from which the falls drop.
There is an argument that Tugela Falls is the tallest waterfall in the world, rather than the more commonly cited Angel Falls. This argument is based on two likely inaccuracies regarding the presumed heights of the respective falls.
Firstly, many now believe Angel Falls is not as tall as was initially surveyed by American journalist Ruth Robertson in 1949. The quoted figure of 979 m (3,212 ft) corresponds almost precisely with the difference in altitude between the top of the falls and the confluence of the Rio Gauja and the Rio Churun, which is roughly 2 km (1.2 mi) away from the base of the Auyan Tepui escarpment and 1.6 km (0.99 mi) downstream from the last segment of the Rio Gauja that could possibly be considered a ‘waterfall’.
The starting altitude of Angel Falls is often given as 1,500 m (4,900 ft), from which the falls plunge a vertical 807 m (2,648 ft), then proceed to cascade for approximately 0.4 km (0.25 mi) with relatively little altitude loss, before a final drop of 30 m (98 ft) below the Talus Rapids, near the famous viewpoint known as Mirador Laime. After this the Rio Gauja flows with very little altitude loss, with nothing approaching a waterfall or even cascade before it empties into the Rio Churun. However, the altitude of Mirador Laime is usually given as approximately 700 m (2,300 ft), which would suggest that Angel Falls is only about 800 meters in total height (roughly the height of the first drop).
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Wikipedia