
Monte Roraima: Arthur Conan Doyle's Lost World
Monte Roraima — the table-top mountain at the Brazil-Venezuela-Guyana triple border — inspired Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World'; the 6-day trek to the summit plateau is one of South America's great adventures
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Prehistoric Plateau of Roraima
The 2,810 meter Monte Roraima plateau receives rain almost daily - the accumulated water has carved extraordinary rock formations, created unique black pools and supported species found nowhere else on Earth
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The Lost World Inspiration
British explorer Everard Im Thurn climbed Roraima in 1884 and his story inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel; the apparent isolation of the tepuis from the surrounding lowlands supported the fantasy of prehistoric survivors
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Endemic species on Tepui
Roraima's plateau supports plants, insects and frogs at this summit alone - the isolation of the tepui over millions of years created evolutionary laboratories; the carnivorous sundew and the bromeliads are the most distinctive
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Three recruits from Paraitepui
The classic 6-day trek from the village of Pemón Paraitepui – through Lavrado savannah, forest and the final vertical climb to the plateau – is Venezuela's most famous multi-day trek and equally accessible from the Brazilian side
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Pemón Indigenous Guides
The indigenous people of Pemón are the necessary guides for the Roraima trek - their knowledge of the mountain's weather, terrain and ecology turns the technical climb into a cultural experience
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Triple Border Summit
The summit in Roraima is simultaneously in Brazil, Venezuela and Guyana — walking between three countries in one step, on a prehistoric plateau in the clouds, is a geopolitical experience like no other