Co-operative Republic of Guyana
South America
Jungle · Waterfalls · Diverse
Guyana (officially Co-operative Republic of Guyana) is a country located in South America. Its capital city is Georgetown, with other major cities including Linden and New Amsterdam. With a population of approximately 790,000, the main language spoken is English. The country covers an area of 214,969 km². The official currency is the Guyanese dollar ($). Traffic drives on the left side.
Kaieteur Falls in Guyana is the world's most powerful waterfall by the combined measure of height and flow rate — it drops 226 m and discharges five times more water per metre than Niagara Falls.
Georgetown serves as the political, cultural and economic heart of Guyana, positioned in South America. As the seat of government and often the most populous city, it concentrates the country's main institutions, universities and cultural landmarks. Beyond the capital, major cities include Linden, New Amsterdam — each a hub of regional culture, economy and history. Georgetown's wooden colonial architecture — a Dutch and British legacy including the world's second-largest wooden cathedral, St George's Anglican Cathedral, built in 1889 — makes it one of the Caribbean's most distinctive capitals, a city on the Atlantic coast below sea level like New Orleans, protected by Dutch-engineered seawalls and internal canals the colonial drainage infrastructure left behind.
With a population of approximately 790,000, Guyana is a vibrant society with a rich mix of traditions and communities. The official language is English, which reflects the country's cultural heritage and connects it with a wide international community. Internationally, Guyana is reached via the dialling code +592. Guyanese society divides primarily between Indo-Guyanese (descendants of Indian indenture labourers, 40% of population) and Afro-Guyanese (descendants of enslaved Africans, 30%), with nine indigenous Amerindian peoples in the interior adding cultural depth to a small country whose diaspora in New York, Toronto, and London means more Guyanese may live outside Guyana than within it.
Guyana spans 214,969 km², in the South America subregion of Americas. Geographically centred around 5.0°N, 59.0°W, the country offers a diverse range of landscapes shaped by its location, climate and geology. Road traffic follows the left-hand rule, in line with surrounding Americas convention.
The official currency is the Guyanese dollar ($), used for everyday transactions and commerce throughout the country. Guyana's economy is shaped by its geography, natural resources and trade relationships. Business and daily life operate under UTC-04:00, aligning the country with its regional neighbours.
Cricket / Football holds a special place in the heart of Guyana's national identity. Cricket is Guyana's defining sporting identity — the Demerara region produced some of the greatest West Indian cricketers including Clive Lloyd, who captained the West Indies to consecutive World Cup victories in 1975 and 1979, and Rohan Kanhai, with the national stadium that hosted World Cup matches in 2007 representing a moment of visible investment in the sport's infrastructure.
The highest point in Guyana is Mount Roraima, rising to 2,810 metres above sea level. Kaieteur Falls in Guyana's interior is the world's most powerful waterfall by volume-to-width ratio — the Potaro River dropping 226 metres into a gorge surrounded by unbroken Guiana Shield rainforest where no road exists and the only access is by light aircraft to a small airstrip, creating one of the world's great wilderness waterfall experiences.