Iguazu Falls, Iguassu Falls or Iguaçu Falls (Portuguese: Cataratas do Iguaçu ; Spanish: Cataratas del Iguazú ; Guarani: Chororo Yguasu ) are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of Brazilian State Paraná and Argentine Province Misiones. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the city of Curitiba. It flows through Brazil for most of its course. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the boundary between Argentina and Brazil.
The name "Iguazu" comes from the Guarani or Tupi words "y", meaning "water", and "ûasú ", meaning "big". Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first European to find the falls was the Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541.
Read more about Iguazu Falls: Geography, Distribution of The Falls Between Argentina and Brazil, Tourism, Access, Comparisons To Other Famous Falls, Climate, 2006 Drought, Portrayals in Film
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“Already nature is serving all those uses which science slowly derives on a much higher and grander scale to him that will be served by her. When the sunshine falls on the path of the poet, he enjoys all those pure benefits and pleasures which the arts slowly and partially realize from age to age. The winds which fan his cheek waft him the sum of that profit and happiness which their lagging inventions supply.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)