The tepui or tepuy is a type of table-top especially abrupt, with vertical walls and relatively plain peaks (not always) characteristic of the Guiana Shield, mainly in the area of the Venezuelan Gran Sabana. It’s usually made of quartizites and sandstones with some thin slate lakebeds. Still it’s possible to find these singular formations in less quantities and sizes on the border line of neighbor countries like Guiana and Brazil.
These mountains are the most antique exposed formations in the world. Its origin dates from the Precambrian. They’re a complex on the northern border of the Amazon and Orinoco River, between the Atlantic coast and the Black River. Throughout the course of history, the table-top eroded and tepuis formed.

Its name comes from the indigenous Pemón language, which means mountain or “the abode of gods”. Tepuis tend to be isolated instead of being part of a common chain. These characteristics frequently allows them to be the environment where evolutive forms of animals and vegetation develop. Currently, the tepuyes are protected by the Venezuelan law by the “National Monument” figure and only to some of them the ascent is allowed. Over the tops of these tepuyes rivers and gigantic waterfalls are born, the most known is Angel Fall, the tallest waterfall in the world. The Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle imagined in his novel “The Lost World” that its tops were the habitat of enormous dinosaurs.


Images by:
Izabella Stachowicz
Jorge Gutierrez
Leonardo Colina
Luis Ignacio Velutini
Javier Mesa
Frederico Morais @Canal do XoFred
Rafael Garcia