The World's Widest Waterfalls, Ranked
Height grabs the headlines, but width creates some of the most overwhelming waterfalls on Earth — vast curtains of water stretching across a river for hundreds or even thousands of metres. The widest falls are usually low and broad, where a great river spreads across a wide rock barrier rather than plunging from a cliff. They include some of the most famous cataracts in the world. Every fall named here is plotted on the map.
What makes a waterfall wide
Width depends on the river spreading across a broad lip of resistant rock. The widest falls form where a large river meets a wide, low barrier — a basalt rim, a limestone shelf, a fault line — and pours over the whole breadth at once, often in many separate channels divided by islands. Unlike tall falls, which need steep terrain and small catchments, wide falls need large rivers and broad geology, so they tend to be lower but far more massive in volume.
1. Khone Phapheng Falls, Laos — about 10,800 m wide
On the Mekong in southern Laos, the Khone Phapheng Falls spread across a braided maze of channels and islands roughly 10 kilometres wide — the widest waterfall in the world by some measures. They are not tall, but the sheer breadth of the Mekong breaking into countless rapids and cascades makes them immense, and they famously block navigation on the river.
2. Pará / Salto Pará, Venezuela — about 5,600 m
Salto Pará on the Caura river in Venezuela is one of the widest falls in the world, where the river splits around a large island and pours over a broad rock barrier in two great curtains. Remote and seldom visited, it is among the most voluminous and broad falls on Earth.
3. Victoria Falls, Zambia and Zimbabwe — about 1,700 m
Victoria Falls (Mosi-oa-Tunya, the smoke that thunders) on the Zambezi is around 1,700 metres wide and over 100 metres high, making it the largest sheet of falling water in the world by the combination of width and height. The whole river plunges into a narrow basalt gorge, throwing up a spray cloud visible for kilometres. It is highly seasonal, at its fullest after the rains around March to May.
4. Iguazú Falls, Argentina and Brazil — about 2,700 m
Iguazú on the Argentina–Brazil border spreads in a vast horseshoe of around 275 individual falls across nearly 2.7 kilometres, set in subtropical rainforest. The Devil's Throat (Garganta del Diablo) is the most powerful section. The sheer number of separate cascades, divided by forested islands, makes Iguazú one of the most overwhelming waterfall systems anywhere.
5. Other broad cataracts
Several other falls rank among the widest, including the Kongou and other Central African falls, the wide cataracts of the Paraná and other great rivers, and broad seasonal falls in South Asia. Many of the world's widest falls are on large tropical rivers, where huge volumes of water meet broad, low barriers and spread into curtains and braided channels.
Width, volume and spectacle
The widest falls are often also the highest-volume, because a large river spreading across a broad lip moves enormous quantities of water. This is why Victoria and Iguazú feel so overwhelming — it is the combination of breadth, volume and the spray and sound of a whole river falling at once. A wide fall offers a panoramic spectacle quite different from the focused drama of a single tall plunge.
Explore on the map
The world's widest waterfalls are pinned on our interactive map — filter to compare widths and volumes, plan a trip to Victoria, Iguazú or the Mekong, or trace the great rivers whose broad cataracts make the most massive curtains of water on Earth.