With a special location, Mount Roraima, between the Venezuelan-Brazilian border, used to be a challenge for explorers, and became the inspiration for the classic novel "The Lost World".
Deep in the rainforest of Venezuela, the series of plateaus at 2,743 m above sea level and 400 m above the surrounding terrain looks like another world.
From above, especially on cloudy days, they look like an island in the sky. These are the "tepuis" (Pemón for mountains), with the most famous being Mount Roraima.
Previously, only the indigenous Pemón people had been able to climb the mountain, making Roraima truly a mysterious, forgotten world. This place formed between 250 million and 400 million years ago, when lava rock emerged through cracks in limestone terrain, then eroded by rain and wind into mountain ranges. Due to the isolated terrain for a long time, the vegetation here is a living testimony to the evolutionary process.
These tepuis are so unique in their geology that thousands of species of plants exist only here and nowhere else in the world, and yet more new species have been discovered.
It has fascinated explorers and writers for centuries, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who described his trek up Mount Roraima in his 1912 novel, "The Lost World". There, a group of explorers find dinosaurs and extinct creatures. To this day, many people still believe this is possible.
Today, visitors can sign up for Roraima climbing tours, but it's not an easy trip. You have to walk 3 days to reach the foot of the mountain, in frequent rainy weather making the road slippery, before following the trail to the top.
Here, visitors can discover endemic species of frogs, dragonflies, spiders, and a variety of trees nowhere else. Especially, if you are lucky, you will admire the beautiful sea of clouds.
However, the increasing number of visitors here also causes many problems such as waste, affecting the local ecosystem. Therefore, many people who love Roraima want the government, tour operators and locals to preserve this destination, limiting the number of visitors.
