Cascade (waterfall)
A cascade (from Italian cascare "to fall") is generally a waterfall , in the narrower sense one that falls over several steps.
Cascades as fountains
A water feature is called a cascade , a technical system in which water falls down in several stepped pools. Such systems have been built in gardens or in parks with water features since ancient times ( Villa Adriana ), then again since the Renaissance (in the neighboring Villa d'Este ). This always requires a sufficient water supply and a sufficient relief of the palace gardens (for example the upper and lower gardens of Peterhof Palace or the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel ). But cascades can also be found as stylistic elements in largely flat parks such as Versailles , Nymphenburg and the Schleissheim Palace complex . Cascades were also built in urban parks, for example in Viktoriapark in Berlin-Kreuzberg .
Cascade-like pools are also used as a decorative element in city fountains .
Natural cascade falls
But natural waterfalls can also occur in cascade form, for example the cow escape falls near Garmisch-Partenkirchen or in the Bärenschützklamm in the Grazer Bergland . Sometimes waterfalls lying next to each other are also referred to as cascades, for example the cascade falls near the Plitvice Lakes .
The natural waterfall cascade of Agua Azul in the Mexican state of Chiapas is one of the longest in the world with a total length of six kilometers.
Fish ladder
The finer a waterfall is graded as a cascade, the more likely it is that fishing will succeed in climbing by swimming and jumping. See also: fish ladder .
