Iguazu Falls: The world’s largest broken waterfall shared by Brazil and Argentina
Have you ever had the chance to see a waterfall in person? If not, which is the one you long to see? It could be the famous Niagara Falls or Victoria Falls of Africa, the Seven Sister Falls in Meghalaya or the Dudhsagar Falls in Goa, right?
Talking about waterfalls reminds us that there’s another waterfall that should be part of everyone’s travel bucket list. It’s the Iguazu Falls that is located in the border of Brazil (along the province of Misiones) and Argentina (state of Parana).
Made up of 275 separate cascades
Do you know what a cascade is? It’s a series of small waterfalls. Iguazu Falls is a broken waterfall that is comprised of as many as 275 such cascades fed by the nearby Iguazu River. This makes Iguazu Falls the largest broken waterfall in the world and also the largest waterfall system in the universe. This spectacular and powerful geographical phenomenon rushes down steps of the Parana Plateau and is spread across two miles in the shape of a horseshoe. Its major tourist attraction is a region called the Devil’s Throat that is a narrow, U-shaped chasm on the Argentine end of the falls and is the highest part of the falls with an elevation of 84 metres. The other notable individual falls are: San Martin, Adam and Eva (twin falls), Penoni, and Bergano. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1984.
What’s interesting however is that, while majority of the river Iguazu flows through Brazil, the falls are mostly on the side of Argentina. In fact, it’s the falls that divide the River into the Upper and Lower Iguazu.
Bonus fact: There’s an Iguazu National Park surrounding the falls, that is also shared by both Brazil and Argentina. It is called Foz de Iguazu in Brazil and Puerto Iguazu in Argentina.
The legend of Iguazu
The beautiful name Iguazu has been derived from two Guarani-Tupi (extinct languages of South America) words, ‘y’ meaning water and ‘uasu’ meaning ‘big.’ Okay, but how did this big waterfall come into being? Well, legend has it that a local nameless water deity wished to marry a beautiful native woman named Naipi. However, Naipi was in love with a mortal named Taroba, and together they fled the region in a canoe along the river Iguazu. This made the deity angry and he broke the river, created the waterfalls, in turn condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. But in reality, the two-step waterfall is made up of three layers of basalt deposits that have been forming since the Paleozoic-Mesozoic era, not to forget the erosion caused by powerful forces of water from the river Iguazu. However, the water that falls drains into the Parana River and into the downstream Itaipu Dam.
The falls was first discovered in 1541 by Spanish expeditioner Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, on his way to the mythical city of gold, El Dorado.
Iguazu Falls: Harbouring diverse flora and fauna
Being at the heartland of world’s largest sub-tropical rainforests, the area surrounding the Iguazu Falls is home to over 2000 species of vascular plants, a wide range of vibrant birds such as parrots and toucans, thousand varieties of butterflies and exotic mammals such as tapirs, giant anteaters, ocelots, jaguars, caymans and howler monkeys.
Fun fact: Two films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been extensively shot near the Iguazu Falls. They are Captain America: Civil War in 2016 and Black Panther in 2018.