Mount Roraima is the most famous and highest Venezuelan tepui (table mountain). It reaches 2810 meters in height, and the plateau area is 32 km2.
Local Indians call it the "navel of the earth" and believe that the ancestor of all people, the goddess Queen, lives on the top of the mountain. Mount Roraima is almost always surrounded by white clouds, which gives it a certain mystery and attracts fans of the beautiful here. For a long time, the most beautiful mountain in South America remained unexplored and inaccessible. Only the bravest Indians overcame the difficult path to the sacred mountain, through almost impenetrable forests and swamps.
The first European researcher who studied this area was the German scientist Robert Schomburgk. But all his attempts in 1835 to climb one of the majestic mountains were unsuccessful. It was only in 1884 that two British scientists, Harry Perkins and Everard Im Turn, managed to climb, who discovered the secrets of the mysterious area to the whole world. Now it is along this route that all travelers ascend to the plateau of Mount Roraima. It was this area that inspired the famous writer Arthur Conan Doyle to write a fantasy novel "The Lost World".
The surrounding landscapes really look like a fantastic world with black rocks that are hung with threads of waterfalls, colorful ponds, outlandish vegetation and rare species of animals.
Almost the entire surface of the plateau is black from the so-called "desert tan" and microscopic algae inhabiting the upper layer of the stone. Only in those places where the sandstone is not exposed to the sun and is constantly washed by water, its real color appears — pink.
Due to the different rates of destruction of sandstone layers, many bizarre rocks formed on the plateau. In some places, the stone is dissected by large cracks, into which several rivers flow, later bursting out of the rocks with noisy waterfalls. A fifth of the entire plateau is covered with various reservoirs: peat bogs and bright pink puddles are replaced by crystal-clear lakes and fleeting rivers dotted with crystals of rock crystal.
Peat bogs are considered to be the most colorful places of the plateau — beautiful flowers and strange insectivorous plants grow on them, the ground is covered with carpets of plauns and moss, and trees resemble bonsai, although they are represented by a small number of species.
The wildlife on the Roraima plateau also does not have a large number of inhabitants, but surprises with its representatives. Many inhabitants of the plateau are painted black, and the most unusual representative of the local fauna are miniature black toads, about a centimeter in size.
Mount Roraima also has an unusual feature: it attracts a lot of lightning striking the surface of the plateau almost daily. Therefore, it is difficult to find trees here that have not been affected by this element.
The colorful landscapes of the Venezuelan tipuis inspired not only the writing of fantasy novels, but also the creation of movies and cartoons.
In 1993, the famous Steven Spielberg film "Jurassic Park" was filmed here. In 2008, a documentary film dedicated to Mount Roraima was released, titled "The True Lost World". And in 2009, the cartoon "Up" was released, the actions in which take place on Mount Roraima.
To date, several dozen people climb Mount Roraima every day. The most convenient way to climb is from Venezuela, which includes three-quarters of the mountain's ownership. Here is the most gentle slope, and the journey should start from the town of Santa Elena de Huayren, which is located near the Brazilian border.
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