Discovering this "Great and Golden City" was a dream that exasperated the imagination of anyone who attempted to make it happen. Each failure to find El Dorado, failure repeated many times over the centuries, brought about a change in its supposed location. Each new report placed him one step further.

Raleigh sought El Dorado in the heart of Guiana, a region that now occupies about half the territory of Venezuela. With sure intuition, drew the golden city of Manoa, on the banks of the mythical Lake Parima, around the center of the map that was on that occasion.

Follow in the footsteps of Raleigh and even if not a fiction but a reality, we will place the region of our dreams - Venezuela and the Orinoco River - in the center of the known world to start exploring their territory.

Venezuela, called Tierra de Gracia by Christopher Columbus when he arrived at its eastern shores in 1498 - Colon said that he had found Eden here in Venezuela, located at the northern tip of South America. Venezuela is the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the east of the Orinoco delta. Seaward of its coastline outcrop almost a hundred islands and rocky outcrops. Linda south with Brazil and Guyana to the southeast (not to be confused with the Venezuelan Guayana, whose Essequibo area claimed by Venezuela). To the west, bordered by Colombia.

Venezuela has an area of 916 445 km2 - almost three times the size of Germany or twice the state of California in the United States. The climate is tropical with a rainy season from April to October. The normal temperatures vary depending on the altitude of 10-12 º C in high mountain of 20-25 ° between 1000 and 1500 meters, such as Caracas, the capital city, and 25 to 35 º C in the lower areas. In the lowlands of Guyana and the Amazon, temperatures can reach 40 º C, but drop drastically at night.

Notable geographic features abound: Venezuela has the longest coastline in the Caribbean (2,813 km.), With countless bays and beaches, beautiful islands, the continent's largest lake, Lake Maracaibo, the highest waterfall world, Angel Falls (979 m, three times the height of the Eiffel Tower), which falls from Auyantepuy, one of the unique plateau of vertical walls and flat and forested peaks, called table mountains, which abound in the Guayana Shield, a areas of the world's oldest geologically.

Their territory also includes large areas of tropical rainforest, the initial part of the Cordillera de Los Andes (the highest peak, Pico Bolívar, is 5.007m), and endless savannahs or plains crossing from west to east across the country over 1300 kms.

Such geographical diversity, rich in natural resources, resulting in a flora and fauna of exuberant wealth. Jaguars, ocelots, deer, tapirs (tapirs), termites, monkeys, parrots and alligators are just a few of the animals that inhabit Venezuela, in the midst of forests that are home to tens of thousands of species of plants. It is also one of the three world regions with the greatest variety of birds.

Unfortunately, due to the uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources, hundreds of square miles of rainforest are lost every year and many of these species become extinct before even being able to be described. In South America, Venezuela spearheaded the action to protect the forest ecosystem. In coordination with UNESCO, has launched the project "Man and the Biosphere", designed to help preserve genetic diversity and integrity of key ecosystems. The Venezuelan government, through official decrees, has been proposed since 1992 to regulate air pollution and the use of substances harmful to the ozone layer.

The Orinoco River is a key element of the geography of Venezuela. Born at 1047m above sea level in the state of Amazonas, in the far south, near the border with Brazil. First run northward tracing the border with Colombia, and then turns east toward the ocean, dividing the country into two.

Much of the course is navigable, with the spectacular exception of torrential Atures and Maipures. Two hundred and six hundred major tributaries tributaries feed their flow, the third largest in the world.

The Orinoco trace the southeast boundary, west and northern regions of Guayana and Amazonas, which between them account for about half the country's territory. It can be argued that Venezuela's Orinoco basin is the cradle of civilization, as the region where they have lived since time immemorial, many of the country's indigenous communities.

< Prev