A vast highland's edge

Most of southern Africa is bounded by steep cliffs that drop sharply near the coast, and nowhere is the contrast between high plateau and low plains more clear than the Amphitheatre. While it comprises just three of the roughly 600 miles of mountainlike cliffs called the Drakensberg, this sheer section of the Great Escarpment plummets more than 4,000 feet straight to the lowlands—so it's as stunning from below as from above. Scan the Amphitheatre's nooks and crannies and you may catch a glimpse of Tugela Falls, by some measures considered the world's tallest waterfall.