60 free Guyana trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Guyana is the only English-speaking country on the South American mainland, a place that drives on the left, plays cricket for the West Indies, sits below sea level behind a seawall, and hides a waterfall roughly four and a half times the height of Niagara in its rainforest. Since 2015 it has also become the fastest-growing economy on Earth thanks to offshore oil. This Guyana trivia quiz covers all of that and more. Fifty-six questions run from geography (Kaieteur Falls, Mount Roraima, the Essequibo, Shell Beach) through history (Dutch colonies, British Guiana, independence in 1966, Jonestown, Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham) to national symbols (the Golden Arrowhead, the hoatzin, the giant water lily), food (pepperpot, El Dorado rum), music (Eddy Grant) and sport (Chanderpaul, Providence Stadium, the 2019 Gold Cup). Roughly a third are easy, a third medium, and the rest are for people who really know the Guianas. Every answer has been checked against encyclopaedia and official pages, so the dates, heights and names are ones you can rely on.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and largest city of Guyana?
Georgetown
The capital sits at the mouth of the Demerara River, partly below high-tide level and protected by a long seawall.
Q 02Guyana is the only country in mainland South America with which official language?
English
Most people actually speak Guyanese Creole day to day, and the country is treated culturally as part of the Commonwealth Caribbean.
Q 03The name "Guyana" comes from an Indigenous Amerindian word meaning what?
Land of many waters
The name once covered a much larger region including Suriname, French Guiana and parts of Venezuela and Brazil.
Q 04Which European power was the first to establish colonies in what is now Guyana?
The Dutch
Pomeroon, Essequibo, Berbice and Demerara were all Dutch foundations before Britain took control in 1796.
Q 05In which year did Britain merge its three former Dutch colonies into the single colony of British Guiana?
1831
The name lasted until independence 135 years later; Britain had formally acquired the territories under the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.
Q 06In which year did Guyana gain independence from the United Kingdom?
1966
Independence came on 26 May, and the country stayed a member of the Commonwealth when it became a republic four years later.
Q 07Guyana became a republic on 23 February of which year?
1970
Republic Day is still celebrated every 23 February with the Mashramani festival.
Q 08The annual Mashramani festival, held on 23 February, celebrates what event?
Guyana becoming a republic
The name comes from an Amerindian word meaning "celebration after cooperative or hard work", and it is one of the few festivals shared by every ethnic group in the country.
Q 09How many people died in the 1978 Jonestown mass murder-suicide in northwest Guyana?
918
The settlement's formal name was the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project; 909 people died at Jonestown itself and others at Port Kaituma and in the capital.
Q 10Which US congressman was murdered at the Port Kaituma airstrip on the day of the Jonestown deaths?
Leo Ryan
He had flown to Guyana to investigate the commune; his killing at the airstrip preceded the poisonings at the settlement.
Q 11Which former US president oversaw Guyana's 1992 elections, the first recognised as free and fair since 1964?
Jimmy Carter
The vote brought Cheddi Jagan to the presidency and ended decades of dominance by the People's National Congress.
Q 12Which Guyanese dentist-turned-leader became in 1953 the first Hindu to head a government outside the subcontinent?
Cheddi Jagan
He co-founded the People's Progressive Party with his American-born wife Janet, who later became president herself.
Q 13Who served as Guyana's first executive president, from 1980 until his death in 1985?
Forbes Burnham
Q 21Compared with Niagara Falls, Kaieteur Falls is roughly how much taller?
Four and a half times
It is also about twice the height of Victoria Falls, and few waterfalls anywhere combine that height with so much water.
Q 22Which British geologist led the party that first brought Kaieteur Falls to European attention in 1870?
Charles Barrington Brown
He returned a year later to measure the falls properly and published Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana in 1876.
Q 23Which table-top mountain of the Pakaraima range is Guyana's highest point?
Mount Roraima
The 2,772 m Guyanese high point is a protrusion on the plateau's northern edge; the mountain's true summit, at 2,810 m, lies across the border.
He had led the country since 1964, first as premier and prime minister, and nationalised the bauxite and sugar industries.
Q 14Which Guyanese historian, author of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, was killed in 1980?
Walter Rodney
He earned his PhD in African history at London's SOAS at just 24 and was killed at 38 by an explosive device planted in his car.
Q 15Who became Guyana's ninth president after the disputed 2020 election?
Irfaan Ali
Results took five months to declare after the March 2020 vote; he was re-elected for a second term in September 2025.
Q 16Which neighbour claims the territory west of Guyana's longest river, two-thirds of the country?
Venezuela
An 1899 Paris tribunal awarded the land to British Guiana, but the claim was revived in 1962 and went to the International Court of Justice in 2018.
Q 17Which is the longest river in Guyana, at about 1,010 km?
Essequibo
Several large islands sit at its mouth, and the disputed western third of the country takes its name from the river.
Q 18Which river forms Guyana's border with Suriname?
Courentyne
It is the country's second-longest river; the two countries still dispute a triangle of land near its headwaters.
Q 19Kaieteur Falls plunges over which river?
Potaro
The river then empties into the country's longest river; the falls sit inside Kaieteur National Park in the centre of the country.
Q 20How high is the single sheer drop of Kaieteur Falls?
226 m
Adding the cascades below the main plunge brings the total to 251 m, and its average flow is about 663 cubic metres per second.
Q 24Guyana's tepuis are said to have inspired which 1912 novel by Arthur Conan Doyle?
The Lost World
The flat-topped mountains, cut off by sheer cliffs, host plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.
Q 25In Pemon, the name of Guyana's highest mountain combines words meaning "great" and which colour?
Blue-green
The mountain was first climbed by a British expedition in 1884, and its summit flora and geology are still only partly studied.
Q 26What is Guyana's national bird, also known as the Canje pheasant?
Hoatzin
It is the only surviving species in its taxonomic family, and locals call it the stinkbird because of the smell of its fermenting diet.
Q 27Which giant water lily is Guyana's national flower and appears on its coat of arms?
Victoria amazonica
It is the second-largest member of the water lily family and is native to Guyana and the Amazon basin.
Q 28Which animals serve as the supporters on Guyana's coat of arms?
Jaguars
They hold a pickaxe, sugar cane and a stalk of rice, standing for the mining, sugar and rice industries.
Q 29What is Guyana's national motto?
One People, One Nation, One Destiny
The motto appears on a scroll beneath the shield, under an Amerindian head-dress known as the Cacique's Crown.
Q 30By what name is Guyana's national flag known?
The Golden Arrowhead
Its red stands for zeal, gold for mineral wealth, green for agriculture and forests, black for endurance and white for the rivers.