The Niagara Falls offer visitors a breathtaking spectacle. Their waters divide Canada and the United States

They are neither the tallest, nor the most plentiful in the world, yet they are the best known. According to estimates, up to 15 million visitors travel every year for a peek at the impressive show put on by the Niagara Falls, by far one of the planet’s natural wonders. The name Niagara means water thunder in Iroquoian tongue.

This amazing wall of water divides Canada from the United States as it flows into the torrents coming from the Erie and Ontario lakes. Over five million liters of water per second fall down the steep slope from a height of nearly 165 feet. The rocky outcrop stretches out for roughly a mile.

From the Canadian border, the panoramic view of the Niagara Falls is a whole lot better, yet from either side visitors count on a number of points to watch the astounding torrent of water. For some, it’s good enough to take a look at them from the distance. For others, crossing the skywalk that bridges both sides of the crag, or just walking down through a tunnel to steal a glimpse from behind, is what actually counts. The boldest visitors get a shot at more exciting emotions: to challenge the roaring waters and get a bit closer in one of the boats available to visitors that are called “Maid of the Mist.”

It’s said that the Niagara Falls, now a full-fledge tourist show, were put on the map for the Western world by French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1613, though top honors in this respect went to benedict monk Louis Hennepin, the man who wrote the first description of the astonishing landscape back in 1678.

Cuban poet Jose Maria Heredia, penciled in as the forerunner of Hispanic romanticism, was also known as the Niagara Chanter. Right at the Niagara Falls, there’s a bronze plaque –donated by the people of Cuba- with the verses of the writer’s Ode to Niagara carved in it. The poem was written on June 15, 1824, following the then young author’s encounter with that natural wonder. “Prodigious torrent, just calm down, shut up your frightening thunder; blow away part of the darkness that surrounds you. Let me see your quiet face that with that burning enthusiasm that fills my soul…”