Tepui Table Mountains, South America. Ancient technologies for working with space: stepped mountains and waterfalls Pillar Mountains

The wild beauty of the mountains beckons and, at the same time, alarms - giant rocky peaks conceal age-old secret. Among the many mountain ranges, the table mountains are especially mysterious, soaring alone above the landscape - they seem unreal, thrown to Earth from another galaxy, although their flat top and steep slopes were formed as a result of understandable tectonic processes. Isolated from the earth's surface many millions of years ago, the high mountain plateaus are carriers of one-of-a-kind, amazing flora and fauna - this is a unique “lost” world, as if straight from the pages of a story by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Table Mountains: Origin
Table Mountain (mesa, tableland, tafelberg) is a mountain plateau with an absolutely flat, as if cut, surface supported by steep slopes - hence the origin of the name of lonely relief formations found on all continents of our planet. Flat-topped rocks owe their origin to tectonic activity that once raised them above the surface.


McKay, Ontario, Canada
The final touch to the formation of rocky plateaus was made by the processes of erosion and weathering - soft rocks were washed away, while harder rocks - sandstone, quartzite, basalt, limestone - remained. A separate group consists of table mountains formed as a result of volcanic eruptions - they are characterized by a peak made of igneous rocks.

Table Mountains of South America
On the Guiana Plateau Latin America- in Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, there are rocks with flat peaks, named in the local indigenous dialect - Tepui, which means “home of the gods”. The Tepui rock formations are made up of vertical blocks of Precambrian quartz sandstone. Separated from the surrounding landscape, hanging in the form of islands 1-3 thousand meters high above the tropical forest, tepuis are the owners of endemic flora and fauna. Rare flowers grow on the high mountain plateaus - orchids and carnivorous plants, which is due to rocky soils, poor in nutrients and unsuitable for other plant species.


Tepui-Ujnaya-America

At one time, science adhered to the hypothesis that the biodiversity of the rocky hills of South America is relict, having not gone through the stage of mixing of species. However, recent research by scientists proves that tepuis were not as strictly isolated from the environment as previously thought - for example, the endemic tree frog Tepuihyla came to the top of Latin American tepuis after the mountain ridge was formed. Total in this region There are about 60 flat-top formations.

The most famous tepui mesas in South America are:

1. Roraima (Mount Roraima, 2810 m), peak area 31 km2. Inspired by Robert Schomburk's report on the rock mass of Latin America, which was presented to the Royal Geographical Society in 1844, Conan Doyle wrote his story " lost World“It was Roraima that became the prototype of a mysterious mountainous country inhabited by strange prehistoric animals.

Roraima Tepui, South America

2.Auantepui. This table mountain is the owner of the highest waterfall in the world - Angel (979 m), falling into a lake 807 m deep. In the language of the indigenous population - the Pemons, the waterfall was until recently called Kerepakupai Vena. The current name is Angel, he received it in honor of the American pilot Jimmy Angel, whose monoplane made an emergency landing at the top of the plateau in 1937. It took the angel and his three companions 11 days to descend from the mountain and return back to the civilized world. Only 33 years later, the legendary plane was raised from the top of the mountain, restored in the aviation museum and placed at the entrance to Ciudad Bolivar airport.

Auan Tepui, Angel Falls, Venezuela

3. Kukenan or Matawi Tepui , 2680 m), 3 km long. The local population, the Pemon Indians, consider the lonely table mountain to be the land of the dead; the Kukenan River originates here.

Kukenan Tepui, Venezuela, South America

4. Ptari (Ptari-Tepui, 2700 m ). The classic version of a table mountain in South America - with a perfectly cut top and absolutely vertical slopes.

Ptari Tepui, Venezuela, Latin America


Carnivorous Heliamphora flower on Ptari Tepui

5. Autana Tepui, 1300 m ). This plateau is notable for the fact that a horizontally oriented cave runs through its thickness, piercing right through the rock.

Tepui Autana, South America

6. Sarisarinama. The exploration of the mountain plateau began in 1961, when pilot Harry Gibson noticed unique natural holes on its flat top. Vertical cave-wells go far into the rock - the longest of them is 1.35 km long.

Tepui Sarissarinama, Venezuela
Table Mountain Tucumcari Mountain in Mexico is not much different from the tepuis of the Guiana Massif - it rises 1517 meters above the South American savanna. Discovered in 1793, the hermit peak caused a lot of controversy in scientific circles on the topic of age: at first it was assumed that the table mountain was formed during the Jurassic period, then it turned out that the rock formation is younger and dates back to the Cretaceous period.

Tucumcari, Mexico
Nature has not spared Argentina either - its territory also has lonely mountains with a horizontal end - the duo of peaks of the Sierra Negra massif is located near the city of Zapala, famous for its coffee plantations. In addition to coffee, this region of South America is rich in deposits of precious metals. In the depths of the mountain ridge there are gold mines, which have recently been run by the Canadian company Goldcorp - according to experts, over the next 9 years, the mine will produce about 0.5 million ounces of gold per year; in July 2014, the first 100 kg were removed from the rocky depths.

Sierra Negra, Argentina

Mesa of North America
Canyonlands National Park (Canyonlands National Park) in Utah, near the city of Moab, is a striking example of eroded lands with multiple canyons, hills and mesas, between which the Colorado River and Green River flow. The park is divided into three zones: Island in the Sky, Needles and Maze, each of which is remarkable in its own way. “Island in the Sky” is a long plateau 366 m high, cut by the Colorado River 305 m deep, with highest point White Rim, Needles Area is famous for its well-preserved adobe dwellings of American aborigines and the “rock newspaper” - Newspaper Rock - with petroglyphs carved into the rocks. In the Maze zone is the Barrier Canyon - the most inaccessible part of the plateau, where rock paintings and pictographs of ancient hunter-gatherers dating back to 2 thousand years BC were found.

Canyon Land, Utah, USA
On the border of Utah and Arizona lies Monument Valley with lonely flat-topped peaks, sometimes reaching 300 meters. Local Navajo Indians call this area of ​​the Colorado Plateau the Valley of the Rocks. The terracotta color of the mountains is caused by the presence of iron oxide in the rock, and the darker, gray-orange hue of some rocks is caused by manganese oxide. In the 1950s, uranium, vanadium and copper were mined in Monument Valley.

Monument Valley, Utah, USA
In the state of Colorado, on the green Mesa Verde plateau, is located national park- this is Montezuma's country - ancient city, built by the Pueblo people (Anasazi Indians) many centuries ago. More than 600 cliff dwellings were erected from 400 to 1200 AD. at the foot of the emerald table mountains and in their thickness, but after a 25-year drought, people were forced to leave their habitable place.

City of Montezuma, Mesa Verde, Colorado, USA
Glass Mountains or Gloss Hills - table mountains in western region Oklahoma State (USA), rise above ground level from 46 to 61 meters. The massif of flat-topped hills received its name back in 1820 from the first explorers of America due to sparkling inclusions of selenite.

Glass Mesa, Oklahoma, USA
In Oklahoma, on the Great Plains, there is another similar natural formation - the Black Mesa plateau (Black Mesa, 1516 m) with a length of 270 km - on the top of this table mountain, indigenous Indians have set up their camps for centuries.

Black Mesa, Oklahoma, USA
Over the coast of Cuba, in the province of Guantanamo, hangs the high mountain plateau El Yunque (El Yunque, 575 m), reminiscent of a blacksmith's table in outline - this feature of the mountain served as the impetus for choosing its name: “yunque” is translated from Spanish as an anvil.

El Yunque, Cuba

Table mountains in Africa
Mountain fortress or Amba - the so-called table mountains in Africa - rocky plateaus in northern Ethiopia, made of basalt and sandstone. There are three ambas in the Amhara region: Amba Geshen or Amara, Wehni and Debre Damo. The Amba Mountains are known as a place of imprisonment for the brothers and male relatives of the King of Ethiopia, including his sons. The unfortunates ended up in a high-mountain dungeon immediately after the coronation of the heir to the throne and left it only after his death. When the sad tradition was annulled, in inaccessible mountainous areas - in temples on the tops of rocks, the treasures of the royal dynasty were kept. Mount Geshen is famous for its Orthodox Church Lalibela is in the shape of a cross carved into the rock, and the table mountain Debre Damo (2216 m) is a Christian monastery of the 6th century.

Table Mountain in Africa Debre Damo, Ethiopia


Lalibela Orthodox Monastery on Mesa Goshen, Ethiopia, Africa


African mesas in northern Ethiopia
There are many cliffs with vertical slopes and a flat top scattered throughout Ethiopia: Amba Aradam (2756 m), Amba Alagi (3438 m), Kundudo (3000 m). In 2008, a lost stalagmite cave with ancient rock paintings was discovered on Mount Kundudo. This is also the habitat of the world's only surviving population of wild horses.

Table mountain Kundudo, Ethiopia, Africa


Ammonites on the Kundudo mesa, Ethiopia


Stalagmites-corals in a cave on Mount Kundudo, Ethiopia, Africa

The world's most famous African plateau is Table Mountain (1084 m) in Cape Town (South Africa), 3 km long. It is also the symbol of the city, depicted on its flag. A striking feature of the African mountain plateau is the orographic clouds that almost constantly envelop its top, forming, as it were, a tablecloth on a flat tabletop. Local aborigines attribute the unusual cloudiness to the devil smoking a pipe in the company of the pirate Van Hankey - such is the ancient legend associated with Table Mountain. The age of the South African Table Mountain, made of solid gray quartz sandstone, is about 500 million years. The 2,200 plant species growing on the high plateau are endemic and not found anywhere else in the world. The symbol of the country of South Africa is the rare protea flower, unique species of which are presented in the Table Mountain National Park.

Table Mountain Cape Town, South Africa, Africa
In Namibia there are also several famous rocky hills with a cut end: Etjo (500 m) with a length of 10 km, Grutberg (1840 m), Waterberg and Gamsberg. Their strange names in an Aryan way, the table mountains of Namibia received from the first German explorers.

Table Mountain Etjo, Namibia, Africa


Table Mountain Gamsberg, Africa


Waterberg Table Mountain, Africa

Table Mountains of Western Europe
An unusually beautiful rocky formation with a flat ending in Ireland (County Sligo) - the Benbulbin table mountain - is part of the array of green Darty mountains. The name comes from the Irish words Binn, which means "peak", and Ghulbain - "jaw". Table mountain Ben Balben was formed about 320 million years ago due to the movement of ice from the northeast to the southwest of the island, during the Ice Age. Once upon a time, the high mountain plateau was under the thickness ancient sea, as evidenced by fossilized marine organisms - shells and corals, found by scientists in all layers of rock. Ben Balben is composed primarily of limestone and mudstone, a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed of petrified mud and clay.

Ben Bulben Table Mountain, Ireland, Europe

Table mountain Monte Santo (733 m), adjacent to the flat-topped rock of San Antonio in the Siligo region, is a landmark of the island of Sardinia (Italy).


Table mountain Monte Santo island Sardinia, Italy

Australian Table Mountains
Terracotta rock of Uluru (Ayers Rock, 348 m) is considered the “heart” of Australia. The Anangu tribe settled in this area 10 thousand years ago, after a spring was discovered flowing directly from the top of a stone hill. The table mountain Uluru, sacred to the Aborigines, is shrouded in an ominous haze - it is believed that it brings misfortune to those who try to climb it or take a piece of stone with them.

Uluru Table Mountain, Australia

Northern Table Mountains
In northern latitudes, tabletop or tabletop mountains have their own name - tuya. Tui are flat-topped rock formations formed by a volcanic eruption under ice, causing lava to come to the surface and transform into hard basaltic rocks after cooling.

Brown Bluff Table Mountain, Antarctica
Thuja Brown Bluff, about a million years old and about 1.5 km long, is located on the northern tip of Antarctica. The red-brown tuff at the foot of the mesa fades into the ash-gray top, rugged by erosion. Brown Bluff is a World Bird Sanctuary, home to an extensive bird colony: 20,000 pairs of Adélie penguins and 550 pairs of gentoos penguins.

Brown Bluff Table Mountain, Antarctica
In Canada, mainly in British Columbia, there are entire groups of high mountain plateaus. One of them is the 2021-meter table mountain Table Mountain, standing in the middle of Lake Garibaldi.

The Table Mountain, Canada
In the northern regions of the United States, you can find thuja table mountains formed on the site of stratovolcanoes and as a result of the collapse of glaciers. In Oregon, there is the Hayrick Butte plateau (1683 m) - this is a type of subglacial volcano with absolutely vertical slopes. At a distance of 3 km from it there is another thuja volcano - Hogg Rock (1548 m). Unlike other table formations, Hogg Rock has one gentle slope along which the road to the top of the plateau is laid.

Hayrick Butte in Oregon, USA


Diomede Islands in the Coast Strait
The unusual Diomedes Islands, the smallest of which belongs to the United States, and greater Russia are subglacial, dormant, flat-topped thuja volcanoes in the Bering Strait. During the Cold War between the USSR and the USA, the Diomedes, between which the state border passes, bore the symbolic name of “ice curtain”.

Mesa on Mars
High-mountain plateaus in the form of mesas exist not only on Earth; in the solar system they are also found on Mars - in the transition zone between the highlands and the plain, and their height varies from 100 m to 2 km. Scientists believe that the Martian mesas were formed due to the movement of ice and its subsequent evaporation in the atmosphere.

Table Mountains

mountains with flat tops and more or less steep, sometimes stepped slopes. The flat surface of a mountainous region is usually composed of hard and fracture-resistant rocks that form the covering layer. Vast territories, the topography of which is determined by the predominance of climate change, are called table countries (for example, the Turgai plateau and Ustyurt in the USSR, the Karoo plateau in South Africa).

Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what “Table Mountains” are in other dictionaries:

Isolated hills formed by the dissection of a highly elevated strata plain or plateau; have steep slopes and flat tops, armored with erosion-resistant rocks...

Isolated hills formed by the dissection of a highly elevated strata plain or plateau; have steep slopes and flat tops, armored with erosion-resistant rocks. * * * TABLE MOUNTAINS TABLE MOUNTAINS,… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Isolated hills formed by the dissection of a highly elevated strata plain or plateau; have steep slopes and flat tops, armored with respect to the erosion of the forge. breeds... Natural science. encyclopedic Dictionary

Dining countries- (tableland)Tableland, plateau or any other relatively elevated areas of the earth’s surface with flat terrain. On their periphery, where S. c. strongly dissected, island mesas are often formed... Countries of the world. Dictionary

See denudation mountains. Geological Dictionary: in 2 volumes. M.: Nedra. Edited by K. N. Paffengoltz et al. 1978 ... Geological encyclopedia

Tauride Mountains, in the south Crimean peninsula. Length about 150 km, width up to 50 km. They are composed of clayey shales, sandstones, and limestones. They consist of 3 ridges: the Southern, or Main, ridge (Yayla), which is tabletop limestone massifs... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

In South Africa; SOUTH AFRICA. In the language of one of the local tribes, this is the Kwathlamba Mountains, a rocky place, a pile of rocks. The Boers called them Drakensberg due to their inaccessibility and wildness. dragon mountains. Geographical names world: Toponymic dictionary. M:... ... Geographical encyclopedia

- (Tauride Mountains) in the south of the Crimean Peninsula. Length approx. 150 km, width up to 50 km. They are composed of clayey shales, sandstones, and limestones. They consist of 3 ridges: the Southern, or Main, ridge (Yayly), representing table limestone massifs (height up to ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Modern encyclopedia

Drakensberg Mountains- DRAGON MOUNTAINS, on southeast Africa, mainly in South Africa, part of the Great Escarpment. Height up to 3482 m (Mount Thabana Ntlenyana). Table tops and steep stepped plateaus are characteristic. Serve as a watershed between short rivers pool… … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• Icarus, Alberto Vazquez-Figueroa. Dramatic and exciting, based on real events history of the development of one of the most mysterious places on the planet—Venezuelan Guiana, where ancient table mountains are located...

At the southwestern tip of Africa and Cape Town, in Table Bay National Park, rises an unusual flat-topped mountain. This is Table Mountaine - business card South Africa adorning the flag of Cape Town. The attraction is included in the UNESCO World List of Specially Protected Natural Sites, and its flat top is one of the ten most visited tourist sites in the world.

One of the 7 wonders of the world

Table Mountain is considered one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. It is surrounded by pointed rocks. The mountain rises 1085 m above sea level. Its surface seems to have been cut with a sharp knife, it is impossible to imagine, but it was the hot wind of Africa that polished the top in such a plane. The composition of the mountain is coarse-grained sandstone and quartzite, its slopes are covered with evergreen shrubs and forests, which are home to rare representatives of flora and fauna, many of them are endemic (found only in this area).

A remarkable feature of the National Park in Cape Town is that it is located at the meeting point of two ocean currents - the cold Atlantic and warm Indian. For this reason, fog often hangs in the local area, shrouding the mountains and peaks in a giant milky tablecloth. The National Park includes such attractions as:

• Table Mountain;
• boulders beach;
• Cape Pont;
• Cape of Good Hope;
• mountain peaks - Twelve Apostles, Devil, Lion's Head.

Historians have found that people inhabited the foot of Table Mountain more than 12 thousand years ago, and its discoverer among Europeans was the navigator Antonio de Saldanha from Portugal in 1503. He carved a large cross on the mountainside, which in those centuries was covered with huge trees, and it can still be seen today. People from Saldanha's ship set up the first settlement in these places - a fortress-ford.

Inhabitants of Table Mountain

If you look at the mountain from afar, it seems like an impregnable and lifeless mass, but this is far from the case. At the foot and on the slopes life is in full swing: on the approaches to it there are farms and gardens, and in the forests on the slopes live baboons, as well as goats, snakes and other living creatures.

Flora: endemics and guests

Table Mountain is famous for its flora - 2,200 plant species grow here. These are mostly endemic, but “guests” have also found refuge on the slopes of the mountain, for example, seaside pine. One of the endemics of the National Park of South Africa is the Ixia flower, which cannot be found anywhere else. If you're lucky, you can also see the protea - the symbol flower of South Africa. The Proteaceae family is numerous, and the most original are those with a sweet, nectar-filled core surrounded by colorful leaf wrappers. It is these wrappers that make the flower unique and similar to sea ​​urchins and stars, decorative bowls.

Fauna of Table Mountain

Unfortunately, many rare and valuable species of wild animals are under threat of destruction, and some have disappeared completely. Thus, there are no longer lions in the forests of Table Mountain. The last of these proud beasts was shot and killed by white settlers in 1802. Leopards have also disappeared, but you can still find wildcats and caracals. IN last years Small animals similar to rabbits - Cape hyraxes - have bred. Thanks to the efforts of tourists, they have become completely tame and willingly accept offerings.

Bear baboons, also spoiled by tourists, cause a lot of harm to local residents. They are so accustomed to human food that they have stopped feeding, as they should, in the forest, but raid houses and steal food supplies. Boulder Bay is home to a colony (approximately 3,000 individuals!) of African spectacled penguins.

And if you visit Cape Town between June and December, you might be lucky enough to see southern right whales leaping out of the water along the coast.

Cable car and other pleasures for tourists

Physically strong people can climb Table Mountain along established hiking trails. The mountain is also ideal for rock climbing. And those who do not want to subject themselves to stress can use the funicular. The cable car was built in 1929 and has been reconstructed many times. Modern cabins rotate 360 ​​degrees along the way for an absolute view of stunning panoramic views.

At the top, tourists will find telescopes for viewing the panorama, souvenir shops and a restaurant. At sunset, you can enjoy a stunning South African sunset when the sun sinks into the ocean and the horizon and water merge. It is not clear where the water ends and the sky begins. The Cape Town sunset is considered one of the most magnificent on the planet.

Table Mountain in South Africa National Park is a real wonder. Standing on its top, you will be imbued with the realization that you are on the southernmost point of the African continent, the Cape of Good Hope lies under your feet, and somewhere nearby the “Flying Dutchman” is rocking on the waves, doomed to forever plow the seas and oceans.

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The Table Mountains are one of the oldest geological formations on Earth, formed about two billion years ago. The tops of such mountains, like huge tabletops, are home to rare plants and the habitat of a large number of unique animals that are found nowhere else on the planet.

Mount Conner

In Australia there is one of the most striking representatives of the table - Mount Conner, the top of which is completely flat, and the rock itself is shaped like a horseshoe.

Brown Bluff

The 745-meter Brown Bluff Mountain is located in the north of the Antarctic Peninsula. Although the rock is mainly composed of ice, it is called "brown rock" because in those places where the glassy mineral hyaloclastite is visible from under the snow cover, a pronounced red-brown color is visible. The shores at the base of Brown's Bluff are home to thousands of gentoo penguins and kelp gulls.

Mount Asgard

Baffin Island National Park is home to Mount Asgard, which has two distinct, flat-topped hills. Asgard is named after the mythological celestial Asgard, the abode of the Æsir gods.

Kukenan

Another flat-topped mountain is located in Venezuela, on the border with Guyana, not far from the famous Roraima peak - Mount Kukenan, whose height reaches 2680 meters and its width is about three kilometers. It is considered one of the most difficult to comprehend, which is why climbers are less interested in it.

Heroubreio

Table mountain Herubreio is located in Iceland. It was formed after a volcanic eruption and is very dangerous, as collapses often occur here. It was first conquered in 1908.

Debre Damo

Mount Debre Damo has the flattest peak in the world and is located in northern Ethiopia. Here is also the oldest Christian monastery, which was built by Syrian monks in the 6th century. Since the founding of the monastery, a library of ancient manuscripts has been kept in it.

Canyonlands Mountains

In Canyonlands National Park, which is located in eastern state Utah is home to quite a few rocky formations, including some flat-topped mountains. There are stunningly beautiful landscapes of huge hills and mountain erosion. The Green and Colorado rivers flow through the park, dividing it into several areas. One of the most beautiful places is Island in the Sky District.

Auyantepuy

In Venezuela, Mount Auyantepuy is one of the most visited natural attractions, whose name means “Mountain of the Devil” from the Pemon language. Here, the world's highest Angel Falls falls from the crevices of Auyantepuy.

The mountain is located next to the ocean, where cold and warm currents meet, which is why fog often appears over the top and it seems that a gigantic table is covered with a white tablecloth.

The flora of Table Mountain is unique. There are 2,200 plant species here - more than in the whole of Great Britain. In addition to plants typical of these places (for example, Ixia, which is native to South Africa), alien plants also grow on Table Mountain (for example, maritime pine), which arrived here with Europeans and threaten local species, many of which are rare and even endemic (that is, they grow only here and nowhere else).

Ixia growing in national park"Table Mountain"

Scientists say Table Mountain has the world's highest concentration of endangered species. Some animal species have already been exterminated from the area by white settlers. For example, the last lion on Table Mountain was shot in 1802, and leopards disappeared in the 1920s. Sometimes only smaller predators - and the forest cat - wander into this area. Much more damage than predators cause to the local population bear baboons, so tamed by tourists for free food that the baboons began to consider human food as their property and regularly raid houses local residents in search of food. Locals combat baboon raids by installing electric fences, setting dogs on the baboons and shooting the monkeys with shot (this is illegal). Therefore, tourists are not recommended to feed baboons.

Bear baboons

However, tourists also have other favorites - Cape hyraxes, which resemble rabbits. These are the most numerous animals on Table Mountain and visitors also willingly feed them.

Cape hyraxes

Table Mountain National Park has other interesting natural objects. For example, Boulder Bay, where there is a unique colony of African spectacled penguins:

The national park also includes the famous Cape of Good Hope: