Imposing and majestic, in the midst of the wild landscape of untamed subtropical vegetation within Iguazu National Park, the traveler can discover an incomparably marvelous natural spectacle that has been declared a World Natural Heritage Site: the Iguazu Falls.

Located17 kilometers to the south-east of Puerto Iguazu, and 22 kilometers from the point where the River Iguazu flows into the River Parana, the Falls were discovered by Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca in the year 1541, and he gave them the name Santa Maria Falls, as a homage to the Virgin Mary, protecting his expedition.They are in the area bounded by the cities of Puerto Iguazu (Argentina), Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil) and Ciudad del Este (Paraguay), which has been given the name of The Iguazu International Tourism Zone by a Special Tourist Meeting of the MERCOSUR.

The River Iguazu has its source in the State of Parana in Brazil and, as it approaches its confluence with the River Parana, there is a multiplicity of rocks, islets and elongated islands that split it up into numerous branches. When these reach the gorge, each of them turns into a waterfall, and together they make up the huge "fan of the Falls", on the border between Brazil and Argentina.

However, the river encounters its greatest "obstacle" shortly before meeting the Parana, right on the Argentine-Brazilian borderline. As it falls over the final edge of the plateau, the thundering roar of the mighty river has been likened by one observer to "the sound of the ocean emptying into an abyss". The noise is so great that it can be heard kilometers away.

In a chain along the cliff-edge, forming a crescent almost three kilometers long, a series of 270 cascades and individual falls separated by rocky islets enable the river level to drop to that of the plateau. This is a 50 to 80 meter free-fall, occasionally broken by outcrops or rocks.

The falls, which are memorable in themselves, become even more remarkable in their beautiful forest surroundings.

The exuberance of the woods with their bamboo plants, palm-trees and ground-covering ferns, so intensely green that it is difficult to believe one's eyes, gives that touch of extra beauty to every waterfall. The brilliant feathering of parrots and toucans flutters through the foliage, amid exotic orchids, begonias and other wild flowers.