15 things about Venezuela you probably didn't know

Lake Maracaibo is the largest in Latin America. It covers a surface of 13,210 km2.

1. There are two versions regarding the origin of the name Veneuela. Some assure that the invaders called it "Little Venice" when they saw people's homes there were similar to those from Venice. Others attribute its name to "Agua Grande" (Big Lake), a term derived from an aboriginal language that refers to Lake Maracaibo. The first version, however, is preferred by historians.

2. Venezuela has the tallest Marian monuments in the world - Virgen de la Paz 47 meters and Manto de Maria Divina Pastora - 62 meters. The Virgen de la Paz Monument is in Trujillo State.

3. It was the first Latin American country to own a nuclear reactor.

4. The Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world is in Venezuela.

5. Catatumbo Lightning is the area with the largest concentration of thunders on Earth producing most ozone than anything else.

6. Los Roques Archipelado hosts the biggest coral reef in the Caribbean.

7. Venezuela is the country with most beauty pageants (212 approximately)

1. Venezuela was the inspiration for movies like Avatar, Up, Dinosaur, Beyond Dreams, Aracnophobia and Papillon.

2. Due to its climate, it is the country that produces the best cocoa in the world. In fact, Switzerland used Venezuelan cocoa to make the popular Swiss chocolate.

3. The country had been called States of Venezuela, Venezuela Republic (two times) and United States of Venezuela until 1999, when its name changed to Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (until now)

4. The second longest bridge in Latin America is the Maracaibo Bridge.

5. All the types of climates in the world can be found in Venezuela.

6. There have been many Venezuelan inventions that have helped mankind significantly. Some of them are the leprosy vaccine, the ereki, the air engine, the scalpel, the steepy, the slate and stylus, and the SEAL shoes protector, to say the least.

7. Jacinto Convit has been the only Venezuelan to win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the vaccine against leprosy.