Located on the border of Brazil and Argentina, the falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu.
Their name comes from the Guarani or Tupi words y (water) and ûasú (big). Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe.
In rage, the god sliced the river creating the waterfalls, condemning the lovers to an eternal fall.
The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541. The falls were rediscovered by Boselli at the end of the nineteenth century. Iguaçu Falls was short-listed as a candidate to be one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation.
