Iguazu Falls
waterfalls on the Igazú River on the border of Misiones, Argentina and Paraná, Brazil
Iguazú Falls or Iguaçu Falls are waterfalls of the Iguazu River on the border of the Argentine province of Misiones and the Brazilian state of Paraná. Together, they make up the largest waterfall system in the world. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. The Iguazu River rises near the heart of the city of Curitiba. For most of its course, the river flows through Brazil; however, most of the falls are on the Argentine side. Below its confluence with the San Antonio River, the Iguazu River forms the border between Argentina and Brazil.
The name Iguazú comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y [ɨ], meaning 'water', and ûasú [waˈsu], meaning 'big'. Legend has it that a deity planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In a rage, the deity sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first European to record the existence of the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541.
“Iguazu Falls” enters the record as waterfalls on the Igazú River on the border of Misiones, Argentina and Paraná, Brazil. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Iguazu, Falls and waterfalls can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Iguazu Falls” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Iguazu, Falls and waterfalls provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q36332. VIAF identifies the subject as 315169026. The Library of Congress control number is sh2006004238. Authority coordinates are -25.695, -54.437. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1541.
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This entry incorporates text from “Iguazu Falls” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.