Ranked by total vertical drop, from Venezuela's 979-meter Angel Falls to Hawaii's sea-cliff cascades — the tallest curtains of falling water on Earth.
Quick answer: 1. Angel Falls, 2. Tugela Falls, 3. Tres Hermanas Falls, 4. Olo'upena Falls, 5. Yumbilla Falls, 6. Skorga, 7. Balåifossen, 8. Vinnufossen, 9. Mattenbachfall, 10. Pu'uka'oku Falls.
Tallest does not mean widest or most powerful. This list ranks waterfalls by a single dimension: total vertical drop, the full elevation the water loses from the top of the uppermost tier to the base. By that measure the crown has belonged to Angel Falls in Venezuela for decades — though a 2016 re-survey of South Africa's Tugela Falls is still trying to take it away. Peru's remote Andes, Hawaii's sea cliffs and Norway's fjord country fill out the rest of the top 10: places where big mountains, big rain and hard rock combine to make water fall a very long way.
The benchmark every other tall waterfall is measured against. Water pours off the edge of Auyán-tepui in Canaima National Park — known to the Indigenous Pemón as Kerepakupai Merú — in a first plunge of 807 m, itself the tallest uninterrupted drop on Earth, before cascading another 170 m.
Five distinct tiers tumble from the Amphitheatre escarpment in the Drakensberg. The long-accepted total is 947–948 m — but a 2016 Czech geodesic survey measured 983 m, which would make Tugela the world's tallest. The claim is still disputed, so it sits second here.
'Three Sisters' in Spanish, a remote three-tier cascade deep in Peru's Otishi National Park. It spent years as a disputed entry on tall-falls lists before surveys settled on 914 m — comfortably third and the tallest waterfall in Peru's Junín region.
A seasonal ribbon that threads down the sheer sea cliffs of northeastern Molokai. Like its Hawaiian neighbors below, it is best seen from the ocean or the air — there is no trail to its base.
One of Peru's great Andean cataracts, dropping 896 m in the cloud forests of the Amazonas region. It anchors a valley of giant falls — including the Gocta cataracts nearby — that has become a destination for waterfall hunters and canyoners.
A nine-tier cascade on the Skorga river, spilling 875 m down the Trollheimen mountains into the Sunndal valley. Thin and seasonal — average flow is about 1 m³/s — but one of the tallest measured falls in Europe.
Three drops totaling 850 m on the southeast side of the Osafjorden, with a longest single fall of 452 m. Fed mainly by snowmelt on Kyrelvfjellet above, it can run completely dry in late summer — visit in spring. The second-tallest waterfall in Norway and Europe.
The Vinnu river's 845 m descent near Sunndalsøra, often cited as the tallest waterfall in Norway (Norwegian tallies put it at 860 m, ahead of Balåifossen). A classic fjord-country horsetail, visible from the valley floor.
A multi-tier cascade down the western flank of the Jungfrau in the Lauterbrunnen Valley — Switzerland's tallest. Italian canyoneers re-measured it at 930 m in 2020, which would move it up this list substantially; the established figure is 840 m.
The second of Molokai's sea-cliff giants, a remote 840 m thread of water with no road access. Its inclusion rounds out a top 10 that spans six countries — and a reminder that some of the world's tallest falls have barely been stood next to.
| # | Name | country | height_ft | location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Angel Falls | Venezuela | 3212 | Canaima National Park, Bolívar |
| 2 | Tugela Falls | South Africa | 3107 | Royal Natal National Park, KwaZulu-Natal |
| 3 | Tres Hermanas Falls | Peru | 2999 | Otishi National Park, Junín |
| 4 | Olo'upena Falls | United States | 2953 | Molokai, Hawaii |
| 5 | Yumbilla Falls | Peru | 2940 | Amazonas region, Peru |
| 6 | Skorga | Norway | 2871 | Sunndal valley, Møre og Romsdal |
| 7 | Balåifossen | Norway | 2789 | Ulvik, Vestland |
| 8 | Vinnufossen | Norway | 2772 | Near Sunndalsøra, Møre og Romsdal |
| 9 | Mattenbachfall | Switzerland | 2756 | Lauterbrunnen Valley, Bern |
| 10 | Pu'uka'oku Falls | United States | 2756 | Molokai, Hawaii |
Items are ranked by total vertical drop in meters — the full elevation loss from the top of the uppermost tier to the base of the lowest — using the widely published total-height figures consolidated in Wikipedia's 'List of waterfalls by height', which cites the World Waterfall Database (the specialist record-keeper) for each entry, as tallied in September 2026. Inclusion criteria: natural waterfalls with a documented overall height; underwater falls excluded. Mattenbachfall and Pu'uka'oku Falls both stand at 840 m and are listed in the order the tally records them. Where independent re-surveys disagree with the listed figure (notably Tugela Falls, measured at 983 m by a 2016 Czech expedition, and Vinnufossen, listed at 860 m in Norwegian tallies), the discrepancy is noted in the item blurb. Rank 1 is the highest value (metricDirection desc).
A Czech scientific expedition re-measured Tugela Falls in 2016 and reported 983 meters, 4 meters more than Angel Falls. The claim was submitted to the World Waterfall Database, but most references still list Tugela at 948 meters and Angel at 979, so Angel keeps the official title — for now.
Total height is the full elevation loss from the top of the uppermost tier to the base of the lowest, including every cascade and rapid between them. 'Tallest single drop' is a separate record: one uninterrupted plunge. Angel Falls holds both lists' top spot in the common tallies — 979 m total, 807 m single drop.
Angel Falls, whose first plunge falls 807 meters (2,648 ft) uninterrupted off the edge of Auyán-tepui before cascading the rest of the way down.
Norway, with three entries — Skorga, Balåifossen and Vinnufossen. The tallies are drawn from the World Waterfall Database, which catalogs far more Norwegian high waterfalls than any other country's.
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