Majestic Kaieteur Falls in Guyana #guyana #essequibo #KaieteurFalls

Kaieteur Falls is one of the most powerful single-drop waterfalls in the world. It's located on the Potaro River in Kaieteur National Park, in the centre of Guyana's rainforest in Essequibo County. It is 226 metres (741 ft) high when measured from its plunge over a sandstone and conglomerate cliff to the first break. Long known about by Indigenous nations in the area, the falls were noticed by Europeans in 1870 by a party led by Charles Barrington Brown, a British geologist appointed as a government surveyor to the colony of British Guiana. According to a Patamona Indian legend, Kaieteur Falls was named for Kai, a chief, or Toshao who acted to save his people by paddling over the falls in an act of self-sacrifice to Makonaima, the great spirit. Another legend though was told to Brown by Amerindians on the night of discovery of the falls: Kaieteur had been named after an unpleasant old man who was placed in a boat and shoved in the fall by his relatives. Thus, the fall was named "Kaieteur", which means "old-man-fall". Video credit: ‪@VisitGuyana‬