Mount Roraima, a table top mountain in South America marks the border between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. The mountain is  2,810 metres high, and most of it lies in Venezuela, which has a number of distinctive mountains like this one which are known as tepuis. Despite its steep sides, the Mount Roraima plateau was explored by Sir Everard im Thurn in 1884 by walking up a forested slope. It is thought that reports from the first expeditions inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to write his classic adventure yarn, The Lost World, in 1912, which has been the basis for many films.

Since long before the arrival of European explorers in Venezuela the mountain has held a special significance for the indigenous people of the region. The Pemon Indians of the Gran Sabana, the area where the mountain is located, see Roraima as the stump of a mighty tree that once held all the fruits and tuberous vegetables in the world.