St. George’s Anglican Cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana is one of the tallest wooden structures in the world, and the second tallest wooden church, at a height of 43.5 metres (132 feet). It was considered the tallest wooden church in the world until 2003 when the Peri Monastery near Săpânţa in northern Romania was finished

St. George’s was designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and opened on 24 August 1892. The building was completed in 1899. It is located on Church Street in Georgetown, and has been designated a National Monument.

The history of the Anglican Church in Guyana can be traced as far back as 1781, when the Reverend William Baggs, Chaplin to Sir George Rodney, came to this country.

However, his stay was short-lived and it was not until 1796 that the impact of Anglicanism was felt, when Reverend Francis MacMahon began holding services in a room on the ground floor of a building that was on the site of the present Parliament Buildings.

Public transport around Guyana’s capital Georgetown is provided by privately owned mini buses which operate in allocated zones for which there is a well-regulated fare structure. This arrangement extends to all mini bus routes throughout the country. Taxis have freer movement around the city and into rural areas. Their fare, while generally standard, is less regulated. The network of routes has a number of identifiable starting points which are concentrated in the Stabroek area and along the Avenue of the Republic between Croal and Robb Streets. Road conditions vary immensely, and little maintenance is done. In 2006 there was one operational set of traffic lights. Lack of traffic control leads to delays and crashes.

The delivery of health services is provided at five different levels in the public sector:

• Level I: Local Health Posts (166 in total) that provide preventive and simple curative care for common diseases and attempt to promote proper health practices. Community health workers staff them.
• Level II: Health Centres (109 in total) that provide preventive and rehabilitative care and promotion activities. These are ideally staffed with a medical extension worker or public health nurse, along with a nursing assistant, a dental nurse and a midwife.
• Level III: Nineteen District Hospitals (with 473 beds) that provide basic in-patient and outpatient care (although more the latter than the former) and selected diagnostic services. They are also meant to be equipped to provide simple radiological and laboratory services, and to be capable of gynecology, providing preventive and curative dental care. They are designed to serve geographical areas with populations of 10,000 or more.
• Level IV: Four Regional Hospitals (with 620 beds) that provide emergency services, routine surgery and obstetrical and gynecological care, dental services, diagnostic services and specialist services in general medicine and pediatrics. They are designed to include the necessary support for this level of medical service in terms of laboratory and X-ray facilities, pharmacies and dietetic expertise. These hospitals are located in Regions 2, 3, 6 and 10.
• Level V: The National Referral Hospital (937 beds) in Georgetown that provides a wider range of diagnostic and specialist services, on both an in-patient and out-patient basis; the Psychiatric Hospital in Canje; and the Geriatric Hospital in Georgetown. There is also one children’s rehabilitation centre.

This system is structured so that its proper functioning depends intimately on a process of referrals. Except for serious emergencies, patients are to be seen first at the lower levels, and those with problems that cannot be treated at those levels are referred to higher levels in the system. However, in practice, many patients by-pass the lower levels.

The first Europeans arrived in the area around 1500. Guyana was inhabited by the Arawak and Carib tribes of Amerindians. Although Christopher Columbus sighted Guyana during his third voyage (in 1498), the Dutch were first to establish colonies: Essequibo (1616), Berbice (1627), and Demerara (1752). The British assumed control in the late 18th century, and the Dutch formally ceded the area in 1814. In 1831 the three separate colonies became a single British colony known as British Guiana.

Escaped slaves formed their own settlements known as Maroon communities. With the abolition of slavery in 1834 many of the former enslaved people began to settle in urban areas. Indentured labourers from modern day Portugal (1834), Germany (first in 1835), Ireland (1836), Scotland (1837), Malta (1839), China and India (beginning in 1838) were imported to work on the sugar plantations.

In 1889 Venezuela claimed the land up to the Essequibo. Ten years later an international tribunal ruled the land belonged to British Guiana.

During World War II the United States arranged for its air force to use British airports in South America, including those in British Guiana^.

Guyana achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1966 and became a republic on 23 February 1970, remaining a member of the Commonwealth. The United States State Department and the CIA, along with the British government, played a strong role in influencing who would politically control Guyana during this time.^[1] They provided secret financial support and political campaign advice to pro-western Guyanese of African descent, especially Forbes Burnham’s People’s National Congress to the detriment of the Cheddi Jagan-led People’s Progressive Party, mostly supported by Guyanese of Indian descent, which had ties with the Soviet Union. In 1978, Guyana received considerable international attention when 918 almost entirely American members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown, Georgetown and at a Temple attack at a small airstrip which resulted in the murder of five people, including the only Congressman murdered in the line of duty in U.S. History.

Georgetown, estimated population 213,705 (2002 Guyana census), is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed ‘Garden City of the Caribbean.’ Georgetown is located at 6°48′N, 58°10′W. The city serves primarily as a retail and administrative centre. It also serves as a financial services centre.

Guyana (pronounced /ɡaɪˈænə/ or /ɡiːˈɑːnə/), officially named the Co-operative Republic of Guyana and previously known as British Guiana, is the only nation state of the Commonwealth of Nations on the mainland of South America. Guyana lies north of the equator, in the tropics, and is located on the Atlantic Ocean. Bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil and to the west by Venezuela, it is the third-smallest country on the mainland of South America. Culturally it is more associated with the Anglo-Caribbean countries than with Latin America and is the only English-speaking country in South America. It is also one of four non-Spanish-speaking territories on the continent, along with the countries of Brazil (Portuguese) and Suriname (Dutch) and the French overseas region of French Guiana (French).