Angel Falls (Spanish: Salto Ángel; Pemon: Kerepakupai Merú or Parakupá Vená) is a waterfall in Venezuela.

[5] Explaining the name change, Chávez reportedly said, "This is ours, long before Angel ever arrived there... this is indigenous land.

[7] During his expedition to find the fabled city of El Dorado, Walter Raleigh described what was possibly a tepui (table top mountain), and he is said to have been the first European to view Angel Falls, although these claims are considered far-fetched.

[8] Some historians say that the first European to visit the waterfall was Fernando de Berrío, a Spanish explorer and governor from the 16th and 17th centuries.

[10] They were not known to the outside world until American aviator Jimmie Angel, following directions given by Cardona, flew over them on 16 November 1933 on a flight while he was searching for a valuable ore bed.

[10][11][12] Returning on 9 October 1937, Angel tried to land his Flamingo monoplane El Río Caroní atop Auyán-tepui, but the plane was damaged when the wheels sank into the marshy ground.

[citation needed] The official height of the falls was determined by a survey carried out by an expedition organized and financed by American journalist Ruth Robertson on 13 May 1949.

A flight from Maiquetia Airport, Puerto Ordaz, or Ciudad Bolívar is required to reach Canaima camp, the starting point for river trips to the base of the falls.

[20] The American fantasy-romance film What Dreams May Come (1998), starring Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Annabella Sciorra, is set in Venezuela and shows Angel Falls.

[26] In 1997, Folco Quilici wrote Cielo verde a novel – long present in the bestseller list in Italy.

Spanish writer Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa covered Jimmie Angel's adventures in his 1998 novel Ícaro— ISBN 9788408025023, later translated into several foreign languages.