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The United States has its eyes on the vast mineral wealth of Venezuela. Its Orinoco belt holds the biggest oil reserves while the Guiana Shield holds some of the biggest gold deposits. But if prospectors come to the Guiana Shield, will they also target a certain peak which once inspired one of the most popular science fiction works of all time?
The peak in question is Mt Roraima. According to the National Trust of Guyana, Roraima, “the highest of the Pakaraima Mountain range in South America, is a part of the ancient Guiana Shield. This mountain contains some of the oldest geological formations known to man dating back to almost two billion years. It was once part of Gondwanaland before tectonic activity separated the continents of Africa and South America”.
Roraima is known locally as a tepui, which means a flat-topped mountain with vertical sides in the language of the local Macuxi Indians.
The table-topped peak, with mist floating at its summit, has intrigued many explorers with its air of mystery.
In his 2006 paper Mount Roraima, State of Roraima The Sentinel of Macunaíma, Nelson Joaquim Reis notes that Mount Roraima was first climbed in 1595 by a British expedition led by Sir Walter Raleigh, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s ‘Sea Dogs’.
“According to other sources, Raleigh would have arrived just at the base of the mount, however, he compiled enough material to write the work he would denominate “Crystal Mountain”,” writes Reis.
However, Roraima actually came to the attention of the West when British botanist of Swiss extraction Everard Im Thurn led an expedition to the top of the peak in December 1884.
“The reports of such expedition inspired the English Arthur Conan Doyle – the acclaimed creator of detective Sherlock Holmes – to write the book “The Lost World”,” writes Reis.
In Conan Doyle’s 1912 novel, an expedition of explorers is attacked by dinosaurs on a landscape bearing eerie similarities to that of Roraima.
‘The Lost World’ has been made into films twice. A 1960 production by Irwin Allen starred Claude Rains, David Hedison, Fernando Lamas, Jill St. John, and Michael Rennie.
Another version made in 2001 starred Bob Hoskins, James Fox, Matthew Rhys, Tom Ward, Elaine Cassidy and Peter Falk.
According to the National Trust of Guyana, “Mount Roraima spreads across the borders of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela, each border in excess of 400 metres (1,312 feet) high cliffs. Mount Roraima represents Guyana’s highest elevated plateau at 2,700 metres (8,858 feet). It is believed Maverick Rock with a height of 2,810 metres (9,220 feet) is the highest point within the mountain range.”
According to Reis, “Of its overall area, only 5% is found in Brazil, 10% in Guyana and 85% in Venezuela.”
Mount Roraima remains an important attraction for trekking. “This, however, is only possible by the Venezuelan side, whose slopes have been smoothed out by a wide colluvium zone caused by the erosion of the referred arenitic rocks. The eastern slope, in the Brazilian territory was climbed by three Brazilian alpinists only in 1991,” writes Reis.
On the mountain, one can find many waterfalls and an array of endemic species not found anywhere else. One wonders, whether this idyllic paradise can escape unscathed even as the US has taken charge of Venezuela.