Caroni River - The Basin of The Caroni

The Basin of The Caroni

The Caroni basin covers an area of 95.000 km2 and is part of the Orinoco basin, the most important river of Venezuela. This means for the two big rivers that they have very similar hydro graphic characteristics. The Caroni itself and her tributary the Paragua are rivers with a staircase, in the sense that many falls and rapids are alternated with stretches with gentle slopes, with many meanders and horseshoe lakes (naturally cut off meanders). Among the most important falls of these rivers and their tributaries may be mentioned the Angel Falls, with the highest free fall of the world (almost 1.000 m) and the Cuquenan Falls, the tenth on the world scale with (610 m free fall, and many others with less height but with a high volume of water, like the Aponwao Falls and the Caruay Falls and rivers with these names: the Toron River, the Eutobarima River, the falls of the Llovizna River and the Cachamay River, these last three in the Caroni itself and the last just before her discharge into the Orinoco.