Tugela Falls | |
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![]() Tugela Falls | |
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Location | Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa |
Coordinates | 28°45′08″S 28°53′39″E / 28.7522°S 28.8941°E |
Elevation | 2,972 m (9,751 ft) |
Total height | 983 m (3,225 ft) |
Number of drops | 5 |
Longest drop | 411 m (1,348 ft) |
Watercourse | Tugela River |
World height ranking | 1 |
Tugela Falls (uThukela in Zulu[citation needed]) 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's still uncertainty whether Tugela or Venezuela's Angel Falls is the tallest (both measurements were taken at considerable distance from the two waterfalls).[1]
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.[2][3] 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.[1]