Emba VenezUK

A reference on Venezuela’s places, species, buildings and cultural record.

Angel Falls seen small against the full height of Auyán-tepui's sandstone wall, two adult figures standing on the valley floor in the foreground for scale, Canaima National Park
The Churún valley from the river: the drop reads as a thin line against a wall wider than it is tall.Photo: Frank Araujo / Pexels
979metres

Angel Falls, Auyán-tepui,
Canaima National Park

The water leaves the rock at 979 metres and touches nothing for the first 807

The falls come off the flank of Auyán-tepui into the Churún valley. Canaima National Park was inscribed by UNESCO in 1994. The American pilot Jimmie Angel landed on the summit in 1937 and left the aircraft in the marsh on top.

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Three more things this country is measured by

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Branching lightning bolts illuminate a dark sky above a calm lake at night
260nights a year, about

260 Nights a Year, Measured

Lake Maracaibo holds the highest recorded lightning flash rate on Earth — not by legend, but by satellite.

2,140kilometres of Orinoco

2,140 Kilometres from Parima to the Atlantic

The Orinoco is not merely a river but the axis around which Venezuela's geography organises itself — drainage, ecology, settlement and culture all…

Aerial view of Ciudad Bolívar's riverside buildings along a bend in the muddy Orinoco River
Ciudad Bolívar stands at the narrows, 400 km upstream of the delta.Photo: Ciudad Bolívar Vista Area · Wikimedia Commons
Supporters

Institutions whose work this record draws beside.

Institutions and projects whose attention to Venezuela's landscapes, heritage, and civic life meets this record where it stands.

Backing the lead piece

Backing Land & Water

Backing Species

Backing Built & Played and The Record

Two birds with a documented record

Species
A flock of scarlet ibis in low flight over the mangrove channels of Morrocoy National Park, Venezuela, at dusk
56–61cm at maturityVenezuela's co-national bird earns its colour entirely from what it eats. Red at Dusk Over the MangrovePhoto: Morrocoy, aves (2003) 03 · Wikimedia Commons
An oilbird (Steatornis caripensis) roosting on a rock face inside the Cueva del Guácharo, Monagas state, Venezuela
1799described by HumboldtVenezuela's Cueva del Guácharo harbours the only nocturnal, cave-roosting, fruit-eating bird on earth — one that sees with sound and has been documented in the same cave for more than two centuries. The Bird That Flies by Sound in the DarkPhoto: Jose Luis Vanasco / Pexels

Villanueva hung clouds in a ceiling so the sound would land right

Built & Played
Interior of the Aula Magna, Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, audience seated in the stalls, Alexander Calder's suspended acoustic cloud panels visible overhead
Calder's Nubes Acústicas hang in the Aula Magna at the Ciudad Universitaria de Caracas, inscribed by UNESCO in 2000. Calder's Clouds Are Also the AcousticsPhoto: Aula Magna-Calder-UCV · Wikimedia Commons
Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, adult musicians visible in the mid-ground, mid-performance
Dudamel came out of El Sistema and now directs the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra. The Orchestra That Kept Producing ConductorsPhoto: Gustavo Dudamel conducts the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra at London's Royal Festival Hall · Wikimedia Commons
Close-up of an adult cuatro player's left hand fretting the instrument's neck during a joropo performance, Venezuela
Venezuela's joropo — grassland music built from four strings, a harp and a pair of gourd rattles — earned UNESCO recognition in 2021 as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Four Strings, the Llanos, and a National MusicPhoto: Marcelo Renda / Pexels
The Record

Two of the largest river basins on earth are joined by one channel, and the channel is natural. Humboldt and Bonpland followed it in 1800.

The 1799–1804 expedition returned with the first accurate survey of the Casiquiare, 42 volumes of published results, and the barometric height of the Andes measured twice.

The Expedition That Measured Everything Twice

Painted portrait of a man seated among tropical foliage, examining plant specimens on a wooden board
Weitsch painted Humboldt in 1806, two years after the party returned from the Orinoco.Photo: Alexander von Humboldt by Friedrich Georg Weitsch · Wikimedia Commons

Ten of them, where they actually are

Maps
Angel FallsMount RoraimaGran SabanaCiudad BolívarOrinoco deltaMaracaiboMéridaCaracasLos RoquesMorrocoyPlace with a page on this siteVenezuelaNeighbouring countries0100200 km
From Los Roques in the Caribbean to Roraima on the Brazilian border, with the Orinoco delta at the east.The list names each place, north to south