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Colombia Colombia Waterfall

Tequendama Falls

A 157 m drop.

When to go

Tequendamasaltobta
zeafra · CC BY 2.0

In numbers.

157m

Height

78m³/s

Average flow

estimate

Apr–Jun
Nov

Best months

120MW

Water power

estimate

The water at Tequendama Falls, month by month

It roars from April to June and in November.

The fullest months: from April to June and November. The thinnest: February.

  1. 42 m³/sJan
  2. 36 m³/sFeb
  3. 61 m³/sMar
  4. 109 m³/sApr
  5. 129 m³/sMay
  6. 115 m³/sJun
  7. 93 m³/sJul
  8. 72 m³/sAug
  9. 62 m³/sSep
  10. 96 m³/sOct
  11. 105 m³/sNov
  12. 79 m³/sDec
high water best months to go

From about 36 m³/s in the lowest month to 129 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from April to June and November.

Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.

Waterfall

Tequendama Falls is a waterfall in Colombia. The water falls 157 m over a front 23 m wide.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there.

Plan your visit

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Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

How big is it?

How big it really is.

157 mTequendamaFalls93 mStatue ofLiberty96 mBig Ben139 mGreat Pyramid330 mEiffel Tower

Height of the drop from Wikidata. Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.

120 MW

About 78 m³/s falling 157 m: the power of the water as it drops.

  • as much as 40 large wind turbines
  • enough to power about 30,000 homes, if it were all turned into electricity

Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.

Seen from the sky.

8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.

Tequendama Falls seen from above (Sentinel-2) N 2 km

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.

The Río Bogotá through the falls
2,000 m2,200 m2,400 mTequendama Falls-1.5 km-1 km-0.5 km0+0.5 km+1 km+1.5 km← upstreamdownstream →

The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.

The valley below the falls
−690 m+690 m

Around the falls the river drops 383 m in 3.6 km. Here the river runs about 151 m below the lower rim of its valley.

What is around.

  • 3viewpointsMirador del Salto, Mirador San Francisco
  • —waymarked walking routes
  • —car parks
  • —swimming spots
  • —picnic sites
  • —toilets
  • —information boards and visitor centres
  • —bus stops within 1 km
  • —other named waterfalls within 4 km
  • —caves
  • 3campsitesParque Natural Chicaque, Bochica
  • 2hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmTarahara, El Refugio
  • —restaurants and cafés within 3 km

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).

Towns nearby

  • San Antonio del Tequendama8.0 km in a straight line
  • Soacha8.5 km in a straight line
  • Sibaté10 km in a straight line
  • Tena14 km in a straight line
  • Mosquera16 km in a straight line
  • Kennedy17 km in a straight line
  • Madrid18 km in a straight line
  • Funza18 km in a straight line

Weather

The weather, month by month.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon °C202020191919192020191819
Night °C10101010109999101010
Rain & snow (mm)4471132209207162134108103186165103
Wet days131622262724222020252418
Sun h/day6.25.54.44.44.85.25.35.15.45.25.15.8

Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (2,467 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.

Photos

Through visitors' eyes.

Salto de Tequendama 1
Xemenendura · CC BY-SA 3.0
Acantilados y bosque de niebla en el cañón del Tequendama
Johan Andrés Toro · CC BY-SA 4.0
El Salto Del Tequendama
Juliancufiño · CC BY-SA 4.0

Recent years

Wet years and dry years

Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
202053%187%80%75%68%193%153%113%116%33%43%111%
2021237%139%100%85%26%121%43%66%141%52%52%63%
2022130%186%152%124%154%128%170%151%131%136%108%69%
2023409%76%125%104%107%94%113%122%136%108%103%130%
202443%96%61%107%179%153%96%55%84%96%119%153%
2025172%161%189%228%128%158%64%133%108%80%58%42%

130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual

Compare with the waterfalls nearby.

Tequendama Falls

Colombia

  • 157 mHeight
  • 78 m³/sAverage flow
  • Apr–Jun, NovBest months

Cascada La Chorrera

Colombia

  • 590 mHeight
  • —Average flow
  • May–Jul, NovBest months

See the guide

Salto de Candelas

Colombia

  • 157 mHeight
  • 14 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–Jul, OctBest months

See the guide

Tequendamita Falls

Colombia

  • 20 mHeight
  • 0.66 m³/sAverage flow
  • May–Jun, Oct–NovBest months

See the guide

About these numbers

Names, height, width, riverWikidata (Q490295) · CC0
River flow and catchmentHydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0
ClimateNASA POWER, 1991–2020
Relief, river profile, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Paths, viewpoints, parking© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.