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Tugela Falls

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waterfall in South Africa and the second tallest waterfall in the world

Key facts

Location
Royal Natal National Park , KwaZulu-Natal , South Africa
Elevation
2,972 m (9,751 ft)
Total height
983 m (3,225 ft)
Longest drop
411 m (1,348 ft)
Watercourse
Tugela River

via Wikipedia infobox

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Tugela Falls (uThukela in Zulu) is a complex of seasonal waterfalls located in the Drakensberg (Dragon's Mountains) of Royal Natal National Park in KwaZulu-Natal Province, Republic of South Africa. According to some measurements, it is the world's tallest waterfall. A revisited validation of waterfall measurements is not available and there is still uncertainty whether Tugela or Venezuela's Angel Falls is the tallest (both measurements were taken at considerable distance from the two waterfalls).

The combined total drop of its five distinct free-leaping falls is officially 948 m (3,110 ft). In 2016, however, a Czech scientific expedition took new measurements, making the falls 983 m (3,225 ft) tall. The data were sent to the World Waterfall Database for confirmation. The source of the Tugela River (Zulu for 'sudden') is the Mont-Aux-Sources plateau, which extends several kilometres beyond the Amphitheatre escarpment from which the falls drop.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Tugela Falls” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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