Georgetown, the capital city has an estimated population of 183,000 and is situated at the mouth of the Demerara River on its eastern bank. It is often described as the "GARDEN CITY OF THE CARIBBEAN". The city is below the high water mark of the spring tides of the Atlantic Coast. The ocean is kept out by a massive wall forming a breezy esplanade on the sea front and by river and wharf walls on the river front.
The streets of the city are laid out at right angles to each other. The checker board layout of the city is a heritage from its Dutch past.
The town which eventually grew into Georgetown, was first named Stabroek by the Dutch and several Dutch names are still in use. Today, it is a picturesque city with broad tree lined avenues and many noble buildings including some handsome wooden dwelling houses of architectural interest and the conical Amerindian Benab - the Umana Yana.
Stabroek Market
The main market on Water Street, Georgetown, administered by the City Council, is built entirely of cast iron and extends into the Demerara River. Opened to the public since 1881, it lives up to its reputation of having anything, from a pin to an anchor for sale.
Umana Yana
This conical palm thatched structure erected for the Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers Conference in August 1972 as a V.I.P. Lounge and recreation center, is now a permanent and much admired part of Georgetown's scenery. The structure is 55 feet high and was erected by a team of Wai Wai Amerindians, one of the nine indigenous tribes of Guyana. Fashioned like the Wai Wai benabs or shelters which are found deep in Guyana's interior, it occupies an area of 460 square meters. Umana Yana is an Amerindian word meaning "Meeting place of the people".
Liberation Monument
On the grounds of the Umana Yana rises a memorial of five timber columns standing behind a granite boulder and surrounded by a jasper pavement. The memorial was consecrated to the Struggle for Freedom everywhere, on the occasion of the visit of the Council of Namibia to Guyana in August l974. The following words are engraved on the granite boulder:
"Mourn not for us who died But for our brothers everywhere Who live in bondage And mourning, turn away to act".
The Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens is one of Georgetown's popular recreation parks. In 1877, Government voted $72,000 to establish the Gardens, and John Frederick Waby, the first gardener, arrived in Georgetown in December 1878. He spent 35 years in Guyana landscaping one of the finest tropical gardens in our region. These gardens have a huge variety of tropical flowers and one of the finest collection of palms, as well as lovely lilies. An example of the gardens vast collection are the lotus and the immense Victoria Regia Lily, Guyana's national flower, which was first discovered in the Berbice River.
Kaieteur Falls
The Kaieteur Falls, which was discovered on the 29 April 1870 by Charles Barrington Brown, the famous hinterland explorer, is situated on the Potaro River, a tributary of the Essequibo River. The waters of Kaieteur, one of the natural wonders of the world, flow over a sandstone table and land into a deep valley - a drop of 741 feet or five times the height of Niagara. Kaieteur takes the form of a huge perpendicular column of water which cascades into a rainbowed gorge only to be transformed into a mountain of foam with a "billion eyes that hypnotize". There are no other falls in the world with the magnitude of the sheer drop existing at Kaieteur. The width of the Fall varies from 250 feet in the dry season to 400 feet at the height of the wet season. Amerindian legend of the Patamona tribe has it that Kaie, one of the tribe's great old Chieftains, after whom Kaieteur is named, committed self-sacrifice by canoeing himself over the falls in order that Makonaima, the great spirit, would save the tribe from being destroyed by the savage Caribisi.
http://www.guyana.org/Handbook/handbook.html
The streets of the city are laid out at right angles to each other. The checker board layout of the city is a heritage from its Dutch past.
The town which eventually grew into Georgetown, was first named Stabroek by the Dutch and several Dutch names are still in use. Today, it is a picturesque city with broad tree lined avenues and many noble buildings including some handsome wooden dwelling houses of architectural interest and the conical Amerindian Benab - the Umana Yana.
Stabroek Market
The main market on Water Street, Georgetown, administered by the City Council, is built entirely of cast iron and extends into the Demerara River. Opened to the public since 1881, it lives up to its reputation of having anything, from a pin to an anchor for sale.
Umana Yana
This conical palm thatched structure erected for the Non-Aligned Foreign Ministers Conference in August 1972 as a V.I.P. Lounge and recreation center, is now a permanent and much admired part of Georgetown's scenery. The structure is 55 feet high and was erected by a team of Wai Wai Amerindians, one of the nine indigenous tribes of Guyana. Fashioned like the Wai Wai benabs or shelters which are found deep in Guyana's interior, it occupies an area of 460 square meters. Umana Yana is an Amerindian word meaning "Meeting place of the people".
Liberation Monument
On the grounds of the Umana Yana rises a memorial of five timber columns standing behind a granite boulder and surrounded by a jasper pavement. The memorial was consecrated to the Struggle for Freedom everywhere, on the occasion of the visit of the Council of Namibia to Guyana in August l974. The following words are engraved on the granite boulder:
"Mourn not for us who died But for our brothers everywhere Who live in bondage And mourning, turn away to act".
The Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens is one of Georgetown's popular recreation parks. In 1877, Government voted $72,000 to establish the Gardens, and John Frederick Waby, the first gardener, arrived in Georgetown in December 1878. He spent 35 years in Guyana landscaping one of the finest tropical gardens in our region. These gardens have a huge variety of tropical flowers and one of the finest collection of palms, as well as lovely lilies. An example of the gardens vast collection are the lotus and the immense Victoria Regia Lily, Guyana's national flower, which was first discovered in the Berbice River.
Kaieteur Falls
The Kaieteur Falls, which was discovered on the 29 April 1870 by Charles Barrington Brown, the famous hinterland explorer, is situated on the Potaro River, a tributary of the Essequibo River. The waters of Kaieteur, one of the natural wonders of the world, flow over a sandstone table and land into a deep valley - a drop of 741 feet or five times the height of Niagara. Kaieteur takes the form of a huge perpendicular column of water which cascades into a rainbowed gorge only to be transformed into a mountain of foam with a "billion eyes that hypnotize". There are no other falls in the world with the magnitude of the sheer drop existing at Kaieteur. The width of the Fall varies from 250 feet in the dry season to 400 feet at the height of the wet season. Amerindian legend of the Patamona tribe has it that Kaie, one of the tribe's great old Chieftains, after whom Kaieteur is named, committed self-sacrifice by canoeing himself over the falls in order that Makonaima, the great spirit, would save the tribe from being destroyed by the savage Caribisi.
http://www.guyana.org/Handbook/handbook.html