A quartz plateau in Goiás estimated at 1.8 billion years old, which puts it among the oldest exposed rock on the planet, and people come here as much for that as for the waterfalls. The crystal is at the surface in places, in outcrops across the cerrado, and the Rio Preto drops off the edge of it in falls of 80 to 120 metres, with canyons cut deep below them. The cerrado itself is the point of the protection: it is the most biodiverse savanna in the world and one of the most heavily cleared, and this is 2,405 square kilometres of it kept whole, with pampas deer, jaguar, maned wolf and giant armadillo in it. UNESCO listed it in 2001 alongside Emas. Highest point Serra da Santana at 1,691 metres. Managed by the Chico Mendes Institute.
Goiás, Brazil
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