Classroom lesson · Kambadaga Falls · 🇬🇳 Guinea

Kambadaga Falls

Guinea's 'Bridal Veil' — a lacy curtain of water in the highlands

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

The Kambadaga Falls are a beautiful waterfall tucked in the Fouta Djallon highlands of Guinea. The water spills over a rocky cliff in a wide, thin, lacy curtain — which is why local people nicknamed it the 'Bridal Veil'. It is one of Guinea's most visited natural wonders.

Tell me more

To reach Kambadaga you hike through green highland paths where the air is cool and clear. As you get closer you can hear the rushing water and feel the light mist in the air — and then the falls appear around a bend, dropping in a wide silver sheet over a rocky cliff into a pool below.

The falls are especially spectacular after the rainy season, when the rivers are full and the water thunders down with great force. In the drier months the flow is lighter and more delicate, looking even more like a wedding veil blowing in the breeze.

The rocks around the falls are covered in bright green mosses and ferns that love the constant spray. Dragonflies dart above the pool at the base, and colourful birds call from the surrounding trees. It feels like a secret garden.

For Guinean families it is a popular place to visit on weekends and holidays. Children love to cool off in the pool at the base of the falls, and some brave visitors wade right under the curtain of water to stand behind it.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why do you think people named this waterfall the 'Bridal Veil'? What does it remind you of?
  2. 02How do you think the waterfall looks different in the rainy season versus the dry season? Can you describe both?
  3. 03What animals and plants might need the spray from a waterfall to survive? Why?
Try this

Classroom activity

Draw the Kambadaga Falls on paper — show the cliff, the thin curtain of falling water, the pool at the bottom, and the green mossy rocks all around. Then write three describing words for how the water moves: one word for sight, one for sound, and one for feeling.