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RORAIMA TEPUI
Roraima is the highest tepuy in the Gran Sabana, towering 2,800 metres above the plains, Kukenan opposite is its twin. They lie at the confluence of three countries (Guyana, Venezuela and Brazil) and spawn tributaries of three of the continent's greatest rivers (the Orinoco, Amazon and Essequibo). Pemon legend describes Roraima as the ‘Mother of all waters’ and the home of the Goddess Kuin, grandmother of all Men.
You lose all sense of scale and track of time here, the land is old – over two billion years, these were once the valleys of Gondwana and Pangea, the remnants of when the continents of South America and Africa where one. Climbing to and exploring the surface of Roraima is a memorable experience, like a leap onto another planet. On it’s summit plateau you're surrounded by amphitheatres of rock, with quartzite summits and labyrinths of pagodas, with valleys of crystals and clear pools that disappear in the depths. Faces, animals and creatures emerge in their strange, other-worldly shapes, while sweeps of cloud close in all around you, then disappear to bright dazzling sunshine to reveal incredible views. Vegetation is sparse, reduced to weird and wonderful plants, lichens and mosses. The rarest creature so far found is a black frog, whilst the endemic flora includes star-shaped flowers on long spiny stems, carpets of fuchsia drosera moss, spiky yellow-orb flowers and carnivorous pitcher plants. It is thought as much as half of Roraima's species live exclusively on the mountain.
The Pemons twist stories of natural events which in time become myths explaining the mountain's strange aspect; the king of the vultures, Anwona, hides atop the highest of them, whilst Ratu the water spirit, lurks in the depths of the region's hundreds of rivers. Arthur Conan Doyle based his novel The Lost World on the reports of early explorers to the region, imagining dinosaurs and prehistoric tribes running amok on the summit. More recent theories claim Roraima is one of the Gran Sabana's 'Invisible Pyramids' of energy...