Georgetown (Guyana)

Georgetown (Guyana), capital, largest city and chief port of Guyana, on the Atlantic Ocean at the mouth of the Demerara River. The city lies 1.5 m (5 ft) below high-tide level and is protected from floods by a sea wall completed in 1882, and a system of drainage canals. Many older buildings are raised on brick piles above the flood level. Sugar refining is a major industry. Exports include citrus fruits, sugar, and rice (which grow along the country’s coastal plain); and bauxite and diamonds, extracted from inland mines. A number of 19th-century buildings occupy central Georgetown, including the Gothic-style city hall and St George's Cathedral, thought to be the tallest wooden cathedral in the world. The University of Guyana (1963) and a large tropical botanical garden are also located in the city. The city’s multi-racial population includes large numbers of East Indians, descendants of the people brought from India in the early 19th century to work on plantations, as well as people of African and Native American heritage.

Georgetown was founded by the British in 1781 and named after King George III. It passed for a while to the French, who largely rebuilt it, and in 1784 to the Dutch, who called it Stabroek. The wide, tree-lined streets of Georgetown follow a neat grid pattern, a characteristic of Dutch design and evidence of the city's colonial past. Regaining control in 1812, the British government restored the name Georgetown and made the city the colonial capital of British Guiana. In 1966 it became the capital of independent Guyana. Population 275,000 (1999 estimate).