Mount Roraima, the Lost World
A vast, sheer-sided plateau above the clouds inspired the story of a lost world where dinosaurs still lived.
What was reported
Mount Roraima is a tepui, a flat-topped mountain with cliffs about 400 metres high, rising above the rainforest where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet. Its top is often hidden in cloud. The Pemón people tell that it is the stump of a great tree, the mother of all rivers.
After explorers first reached the summit in 1884, reports of its strange plants and isolated world helped inspire Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel 'The Lost World', in which dinosaurs survive on a South American plateau.
Explanations offered
There are no dinosaurs on Roraima, but there is something real behind the idea: cut off by its cliffs, the summit has many plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth, including tiny black frogs and carnivorous plants.
- When
- Climbed in 1884; Conan Doyle's novel in 1912
- Where
- Where Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana meet
- Witnesses
- Explorers, scientists and the Pemón people
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.