Kaieteur Falls, Guyana

Kaieteur Falls is the world's widest single drop waterfall, located on the Potaro River in the Kaieteur National Park, in Essequibo, Guyana. Its location is in the Amazon forest. It is 226 metres (741 ft) high when measured from its plunge over a sandstone and conglomerate cliff to the first break. It then flows over a series of steep cascades that, when included in the measurements, bring the total height to 251 metres (822 ft). While many falls have greater height, few have the combination of height and water volume, and Kaieteur is among the most powerful waterfalls in the world with an average flow rate of 663 cubic metres per second (23,400 cubic feet per second). Kaieteur Falls is about four times higher than the Niagara Falls, on the border between Canada and the United States, and about twice the height of the Victoria Falls, on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe in Africa. It is a single drop waterfall. Upriver from the falls, the Potaro Plateau stretches out to the distant escarpment of the Pakaraima Mountains. The Potaro River empties into the Essequibo River which is one of the longest and widest rivers in South America.