Long before Qatar built slides off the side of a skyscraper, the scariest water slide on Earth sat on a hillside in rural Brazil. Kilimanjaro, at Aldeia das Águas Park Resort in Barra do Piraí, Rio de Janeiro state, drops 163.7 ft (49.9 m) down a near-sheer rock face — a single white chute pitched at roughly 60 degrees, straight into a plunge pool.
It held the Guinness World Records title of tallest water slide for well over a decade, and it remains the tallest water slide in the Americas — and the tallest drop of its kind anywhere.
Key Stats
| Height | 163.7 ft (49.9 m) |
| Opened | 1999 (Guinness lists construction as 2002) |
| Type | Hillside speed slide, ~60-degree drop |
| Park | Aldeia das Águas Park Resort, Barra do Piraí, Brazil |
| Record | Former Guinness tallest water slide; tallest slide drop still standing |
The Record Run
Guinness World Records measured Kilimanjaro at 49.9 m (163 ft) and listed it as the tallest water slide in the world — a title it kept until July 2014, when Verrückt in Kansas City opened at 168 ft 7 in expressly to beat it. Verrückt’s reign was short and grim: closed in 2016 after a fatal accident, demolished in 2018. That put Kilimanjaro back on top of the world until Meryal Waterpark’s 250-foot twins arrived in Qatar in 2023.
Because Meryal’s slides descend a free-standing tower while Kilimanjaro runs down a natural hillside, the Brazilian slide still owns a distinction of its own: the tallest water slide drop on our ranking of the tallest water slides in the world that isn’t tower-supported — and the biggest single plunge a rider takes anywhere in the Americas.
The Experience
There is no capsule and no trapdoor — just a platform at the top of a long staircase, a view over the valley, and a chute that vanishes over the edge. Riders descend on their backs, arms crossed, and the slide’s roughly 60-degree pitch produces a stretch of genuine airtime-adjacent free fall before the run-out flattens into the pool. The surrounding rock face and jungle make it look more like a dam spillway than a theme park ride.
Still Open, Still Feared
Aldeia das Águas has kept a low profile in recent years — the park’s own website has lapsed at times — but the resort continues to operate and was voted one of Brazil’s top ten water parks for 2026. Kilimanjaro remains its headline act, more than a quarter century after it first opened. Guinness’s own record listing dates the structure to 2002; the park’s history puts the slide’s debut in 1999.
FAQ
How tall is the Kilimanjaro water slide?
163.7 ft (49.9 m), as measured by Guinness World Records — the tallest water slide in the Americas and the third tallest operating anywhere.
Is Kilimanjaro still the world’s tallest water slide?
No. Vertigo and The Fractionator at Meryal Waterpark in Qatar took the Guinness record at 250 ft 4 in. Kilimanjaro remains the tallest hillside (non-tower) slide drop in the world.
Where is Kilimanjaro located?
At Aldeia das Águas Park Resort in Barra do Piraí, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — about halfway between the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
Photo: Matheus 4856 via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)