Geography of Guyana

Guyana extends over an area of 83,000 square miles (214,969 sq. km) on the northeast shoulder of the South American continent. The Atlantic Ocean stretches for 270 miles along the coast of Guyana, but the country's major thrust is southward and inland, for a distance of 450 miles. Guyana borders on Venezuela in the west, Brazil in the south, and Suriname in the east.

There are three distinct geographical areas - the coastal belt, the forested and mountainous area, and the savannah zone.

The narrow coastal belt, a thin strip only 10 to 40 miles in width (just 4 percent of the total land area), is intensively cultivated and is home to 90 percent of the population. The area actually lies several feet below sea level at high tide, having been reclaimed in order to take advantage of the enormously rich alluvial soil deposited by ocean currents from the Amazon. This coastal belt is protected from the sea by an elaborate system of dams, walls, and groynes--a system that is reminiscent of the Netherlands itself, from which Guyana's first European settlers originated.

From the coastal zone, the land rises to a plateau of dense equatorial forest and swamp. Minerals are found in the area - the most valuable being bauxite, diamonds, gold and manganese. Further inland, the forest plateau rises to the savannah country of the southwest, called the Rupununi. The sparse population of this area is predominantly Amerindian.

Guyana is graced by many mighty rivers, the three most important being the Demerara (on which is found Georgetown), the Berbice (in the South), and the Essequibo, which with its many tributaries drains the greater part of the country.