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Tugela Falls
A towering tiered cascade in South Africa's Drakensberg, among the tallest on Earth
High in the Drakensberg of South Africa, the Tugela River spills off the great rampart of the Amphitheatre and drops in a series of free-leaping falls totalling about 948 metres, making Tugela one of the tallest waterfalls in the world. A 2016 Czech survey measured it even higher, and some now argue it edges out Angel Falls for the title of tallest. Seasonal and often slender, it can vanish to a trickle in the dry winter, then roar after summer storms, sometimes freezing into spectacular columns of ice.
The falls cascade down the sheer face of the Amphitheatre, a colossal cliff of basalt and sandstone over five kilometres long and as much as 1,200 metres high, one of the most dramatic rock walls anywhere on the planet. The Tugela rises just above the lip, on the high plateau of the Mont-aux-Sources massif, and tumbles in five distinct drops toward the valley below. The whole setting lies within uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site celebrated for its scenery and its ancient San rock art.
The Drakensberg, called uKhahlamba, the Barrier of Spears, in Zulu, has been home to the San for thousands of years, and the surrounding park preserves one of the richest concentrations of rock paintings in Africa. Reaching the top of the falls is a famous and demanding hike, the final stretch climbing chain ladders bolted to the cliff to gain the plateau. From the summit walkers can stand at the very brink and watch the Tugela vanish over the edge of the Amphitheatre.