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At 979 m tall, it is the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall.

In 1933, an American bush pilot named Jimmie Angel was flying solo over the Venezuelan jungle looking for gold when he spotted a waterfall so massive he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He wrote in his flight log: "FLIGHT OVER THE BIG FALLS – 1 – MILE." He was the first outsider to fly over it, and the falls now carry his name.

Angel Falls drops 979 meters, or 3,212 feet, making it the tallest uninterrupted waterfall on earth. That's 15 times the height of Niagara Falls. The water plunges over the edge of Auyán-tepui, a flat-topped mountain known to the local Pemon people as "Devil's Mountain," and by the time it reaches the canyon floor, much of it has dissolved into mist.

Jimmie Angel returned in October 1937 with his wife and two companions, intending to land on top of Auyán-tepui. He managed it, but the plane's wheels sank into the marshy ground and the aircraft couldn't take off again. Angel and his companions spent 11 days hiking down the back of the mountain through dense jungle to reach civilization.

His plane sat stranded on top of the tepui for 33 years before a helicopter finally lifted it out. It's now on display outside the airport in Ciudad Bolívar.

The Pemon people, who had known about the falls for thousands of years, call them Kerepakupai Vená, meaning "waterfall of the deepest place." In 2009, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez tried to officially rename them, arguing the falls belonged to Venezuela long before Jimmie Angel ever arrived.

Getting there still requires a flight into Canaima National Park, followed by a river journey by dugout canoe through the jungle. During the dry season the falls can shrink dramatically. During the wet season clouds often hide the top entirely. There's no bad option, just a different kind of spectacular.