The Wonotobo Falls ( Dutch: ''Wonotobovallen'') are a series of

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

s in the

Courantyne River The Courantyne River ( ), also known as Corentyne and Corantijn (), is a river in northern South America in Suriname and Guyana. It is the longest List of rivers of Suriname, river in the country and creates the border between Suriname and the Eas ...

Sipaliwini District Sipaliwini is the largest Districts of Suriname, district of Suriname, located in the south. Sipaliwini is the only district that does not have a regional capital, as it is directly administered by the national government in Paramaribo. Sipaliwini ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

near the border with

Guyana Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic British West Indies. entry "Guyana" Georgetown, Guyana, Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the co ...

. The waterfalls are not navigable. A pre-Columbian petroglyph site is located near the falls.

Overview

The waterfalls are situated about from the mouth of the

. The complex consists of the ''Dutchman Fall'', the ''Blue Crane Fall'', the ''Frenchman Fall'', and the ''Englishman Fall''. To pass the falls, canoes have to be transported five kilometres overland. Wanapan, an

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

village, is located at the bottom of the falls. In 1836, Robert Hermann Schomburgk was the first person to venture beyond the falls. Wonotobo is a Kalina word. According to Schomburgk, the full name was "Mawari Wonotopo" (the spot where the

blue crane The blue crane (''Grus paradisea''), also known as the Stanley crane and the paradise crane, is the national bird of South Africa. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Description The blue crane is a tall, ground-dwelling bird, ...

sleeps).

Petroglyphs

At a distance of about 200 metres from the falls, there is an abandoned Amerindian settlement. In July 1959, Dirk Geijskes discovered

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

and pottery near the settlement. A total of 33 petroglyphs have been found. A carbon dating of charcoal yielded an age of 1900 ± 40 BP making it the oldest complex in the

Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British Guiana, British, Surinam (Dutch colo ...

at the time. Most of the petroglyphs are in the Corantijn Basin, and provide an important insight into the ceremonial, mythical and religious world of these precontact indigenous peoples. The petroglyphs at Werehpai, which were discovered later, turned out to be significantly older. The site is also well known as the habitat of Pseudoplatystoma, a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of several South American

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

References

Bibliography

*{{cite web, last1=Boomert , first1=Aad, url=https://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/AA/00/06/19/61/00261/9-6.pdf , year=1983 , title=''Saladoid Occupation of Wonotobo Falls, Western Suriname'' , publisher=Proceedings of the IX International Congress for the Study of Pre-Columbian Cultures of the Lesser Antilles, location=Montréal Archaeological sites in Suriname Pre-Columbian archaeological sites Sipaliwini District Waterfalls of Suriname Pre-Columbian art Petroglyphs in South America