1. Guyana is the only country in South America to have English as its official language.

 

2. The name Guyana means “land of many waters” in a native American language referring to the many rivers running through the country.

 

3. The original Demerara sugar cane grew in the region of the Demerara River in Guyana.

 

4. Guyana is the only country in South America where homosexual acts are illegal.

 

5. Guyanese cricketers may play for the West Indies. In their great teams of the 1960s and 1970s, Rohan Kanhai and Clive Lloyd were Guyanese.

 

6. Guyana is the only Commonwealth state on mainland South America.

 

7. The capital of Guyana is Georgetown. Ascension Island also has a capital called Georgetown while George Town is the capital of the Cayman Islands.

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8. The largest mass suicide in modern history was in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978 when more than 900 followers of cult leader Jim Jones died.

 

9. The Kaieteur Falls in Guyana is the world’s widest single-drop waterfall.

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10. Christopher Columbus claimed to have seen a mermaid called Watamamma in Guyana’s waters.