Iguazu Waterfalls of the Iguazu River, is located on the border of the Brazilian state of Parana and the Argentine province of Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu.

Argentina (1976) 10 Pesos (back) - The Iguazu Waterfalls

Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipi, who fled with her mortal lover Taroba in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.

The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, after whom one of the falls in the Argentine side is named. The falls were rediscovered by Boselli at the end of the nineteenth century, and one of the Argentinian falls is named after him.
The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometres (1.67 miles) of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 metres (269 ft) in height, though the majority are about 64 metres (210 ft). The Garganta del Diablo (Devil's Throat in English), a U-shaped 150-metre-wide and 700-metre-long (490 by 2300 feet) cliff, is the most impressive of all, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. Two thirds of the falls are within Argentine territory. About 900 metres of the 2.7-kilometre length does not have water flowing over it. The edge of the basalt cap recedes only 3 mm per year.

The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains into the Rio Parana in Argentina.

The falls can be reached from the two main towns on either side of the falls: Foz do Iguaçu in the Brazilian state of Parana, and Puerto Iguazu in the Argentine province of Misiones as well as from Ciudad del Este (Paraguay) on the other side of the Parana river from Foz do Iguaçu. The falls are shared by the Iguazu National Park (Argentina) and Iguaçu National Park (Brazil). These parks were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984 and 1986, respectively.

On the Brazilian side there is a long walkway along the canyon with an extension to the lower base of the "Garganta del Diablo". The Argentian access is facilitated by a train ("Tren a las Cataratas") (in early August 2007 the name for the free train operated in the National Park is "Tren ecologico de la selva") that brings visitors to different walkways. The "Paseo Garganta del Diablo" is a one kilometer long way to bring the visitor directly over the falls of the "Garganta del Diablo". Other walkways allow access to the elongated stretch of falls on the Argentinian side and to the ferry that connects to the San Martin island.

The fall area provides opportunities for water sports and rock climbing.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Iguazu Falls"