Mount Roraima (Spanish: Monte Roraima [monte roaima], also known as Tepuy Roraima and Cerro

Roraima; Portuguese: Monte Roraima [mti ojm]) is the highest of the Pakaraima chain of tepui plateaus
in South America.[4]:156 First described by the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh in 1596, its 31 km2 summit
area[4]:156 consists on all sides of cliffs rising 400 metres (1,300 ft). The mountain also serves as the triple border
point of Venezuela (claiming 85% of its territory), Brazil (5%) and Guyana (10%).[4]:156
Mount Roraima lies on the Guiana Shield in the southeastern corner of Venezuela's 30,000-square-kilometre
(12,000 sq mi) Canaima National Park forming the highest peak of Guyana's Highland Range. The tabletop
mountains of the park are considered some of the oldest geological formations on Earth, dating back to some
two billion years ago in the Precambrian.
The highest point in Guyana and the highest point of the Brazilian state of Roraima lie on the plateau, but
Venezuela and Brazil have higher mountains elsewhere. The triple border point is at 51208N 604407W,
but the mountain's highest point is Maverick Rock, 2,810 metres (9,219 ft), at the south end of the plateau and
wholly within Venezuela.

Contents

1 Flora and fauna

2 Culture

3 Ascents

4 References

5 Further reading

6 External links

Flora and fauna

Vegetation on Mount Roraima

Many of the species found on Roraima are unique to the plateau.[5] Plants such as pitcher plants (Heliamphora),
Campanula (a bellflower), and the rare Rapatea heather are commonly found on the escarpment and summit.
[4]:156157
It rains almost every day of the year. Almost the entire surface of the summit is bare sandstone, with
only a few bushes (Bonnetia roraim) and algae present.[3]:517[6]:464[7]:63 Low scanty and bristling vegetation is
also found in the small, sandy marshes that intersperse the rocky summit.[3]:517 Most of the nutrients that are
present in the soil are washed away by torrents that cascade over the edge, forming some of the highest
waterfalls in the world.
There are many examples of unique fauna atop Mount Roraima. Oreophrynella quelchii, commonly called the
Roraima Bush Toad, is a diurnal toad usually found on open rock surfaces and shrubland. It is a species of toad
in the Bufonidae family and breeds by direct development.[8] The species is currently listed as vulnerable and
there is a need for increased education among tourists to make them aware of the importance of not handling
these animals in the wild. Close population monitoring is also required, particularly since this species is known
only from a single location. The species is protected in Monumento Natural Los Tepuyes in Venezuela, and
Parque Nacional Monte Roraima in Brazil.[9]

Culture
Since long before the arrival of European explorers, the mountain has held a special significance for the
indigenous people of the region, and it is central to many of their myths and legends. The Pemon and
Kapon[disambiguation needed] natives of the Gran Sabana see Mount Roraima as the stump of a mighty tree that once
held all the fruits and tuberous vegetables in the world. Felled by Makunaima, their mythical trickster, the tree
crashed to the ground, unleashing a terrible flood.[10] Roroi in the Pemon language means blue-green and ma
means great.[citation needed]
In 2006, Mount Roraima was the destination for the award-winning Gryphon Productions two-hour television
documentary The Real Lost World. The program was shown on Animal Planet, Discovery HD Theater and OLN
(Canada). Directed by Peter von Puttkamer, this travel/adventure documentary featured a modern team of
explorers (Rick West, Hazel Barton, Seth Heald, Dean Harrison and Peter Sprouse) who followed in the
footsteps of British explorers Im Thurn and Harry Perkins who sought the flora and fauna of Roraima in the
mid-19th century. The adventures of those explorers may have inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's seminal book
about people and dinosaurs, The Lost World, published in 1912.[4]:156 In 2006, The Real Lost World team were
the first scientific team to explore the caves of Roraima, only recently discovered. Inside they found intriguing
"carrot" formations growing in the 2 billion year old caves. Hazel Barton returned in 2007 on a NASA funded
expedition to investigate the features growing on the cave walls and ceiling: evidence of extremophile cave
microbes eating the silica-based walls of the cave and leaving dusty deposits on ancient spiderwebs, forming
these unique stalactite type shapes.
In 2009, Mount Roraima served as inspiration for a Disney/Pixar animated movie Up.[11] The Blu-ray version of
the movie disc bonus footage features a short film (called Adventure Is Out There) about some of the Pixar
production team going to Mount Roraima and climbing it for inspiration and ideas for the making of Up.

Ascents

The steep rock wall of Monte Roraima.

Although the steep sides of the plateau make it difficult to access, it was the first recorded major tepui to be
climbed: Sir Everard im Thurn walked up a forested ramp in December 1884 to scale the plateau. This is the
same route hikers take today.
Today, Mount Roraima is a destination for backpackers. Almost all who go up the mountain approach it from
the Venezuelan side. Most hikers hire a Pemon Indian guide in the village of Paraitepui, which is reached by
dirt road from the main Gran Sabana road between kilometre 88 and Santa Elena de Uairen. Although the path
to reach the plateau is well marked and popularly traveled, it is easy to get lost on top of the mountain, as there
are few distinct trails and the near constant cloud cover on top and the uncanny rock formations make visual
references problematic. Paraitepui can be reached easily by four-wheel-drive vehicle, with great difficulty by
car if the unpaved road conditions are unusually fine, or by foot in about a day.[citation needed]
From Paraitepui, most hikers take two days to reach the base of the mountain, and then another day to follow
"La Rampa," a natural staircase-like path, up to the top. Another two days are typically needed for the return,
and many people spend one day and night on top of the mountain, making six days in total. Longer treks can
reach the northern portion of the tepui, mostly in Guyana, with less explored and more intriguing sites such as

Lake Gladys, although this offers more dangers than its more popular southern part and should only be
attempted by well-supplied groups. The less adventurous can also reach the mountain, weather permitting, by
helicopter tours available from the nearby Venezuelan city of Santa Elena de Uairn.[12]

Maverick Rock, the highest point of Mount Roraima

The only non-technical route to the top is the Paraitepui route; any other approach will involve climbing gear.
Mount Roraima has been climbed on a few occasions from the Guyana and Brazil sides, but as the mountain is
entirely bordered on both these sides by enormous sheer cliffs that include high overhanging (negativeinclination) stretches, these are extremely difficult and technical rock climbing routes. 2013 Austrian
documentary "Jger des Augenblicks - Ein Abenteuer am Mount Roraima" documented rock climbers Kurt
Albert, Holger Heuber, and Stefan Glowacz climbing to the top of Mount Roraima from the Guyana side. Such
climbs would also require difficult authorizations for entering restricted-access national parks in the respective
countries. As of 2009, climbing from the Brazilian side would be particularly problematic, due to the access
being through Raposa-Serra do Sol Amerindian reserve, where armed conflicts between the natives, rice
farmers and the authorities have been frequent.[citation needed]