Gran Sabana: Savanna Region

La Gran Sabana ("The Great Savanna") is a region in southeastern Venezuela and part of the Guianan Savanna ecoregion. The savanna spreads into the areas of the Guiana Highlands and southeast into Bolívar State, extending further to the borders with Brazil and Guyana.

The savanna region has an area of 10,820 sq km (4,180 sq mi) and is part of the second largest National Park in Venezuela, the Canaima National Park.

The average temperature is around 20 °C (68 °F), but at night it can drop to 13 °C (55 °F) and in some of the more elevated sites, depending on the weather, it may fall a bit more.

La Gran Sabana offers one of the most unusual landscapes in the world with rivers, waterfalls and gorges, deep and vast valleys, impenetrable jungles and savanna that host large numbers and varieties of plant species. In addition, it hosts diverse fauna and isolated tabletop mesas locally known as tepuis.

This region was subjected to several periods of uplift and subsidence, and variable erosion. As a result, the large remaining isolated sandstone beds are called "tepuis" in the language of the region's indigenous inhabitants.

The road from El Dorado to Santa Elena de Uairén goes from an elevation of 200 - 1,500 m (660 - 4,920 ft) in less than 30 km (19 mi) in a place called "La Escalera" (the stairs).

The formation of rocky and sandy soils supports savanna vegetation on the higher elevations, with dense jungle vegetation occurring in depressions and dense forests along the rivers.

In the Gran Sabana, ancient massifs are randomly distributed and eroded in tabular form, known as tepuis. These are examples of inverted reliefs forming a typical plateau of the Guiana highlands.

These plateaus in the Gran Sabana reach their maximum altitude in the Tepui Roraima at nearly 2,800 m (9,200 ft) above sea level.