Kaieteur Falls which is one of the longest and widest rivers in South America and the longest river in Guyana. The falls were discovered by Europeans in 1870 by a party led by Charles Barrington Brown, a British geologist appointed as a government surveyor to the colony of British Guiana. Brown and his partner James Sawkins had arrived in Georgetown in 1867, and while they did some of their mapping and preparation of geological reports together, some work was performed in separate expeditions, and Sawkins was taking a break from his work at the time of Brown's discovery of Kaieteur. At this
Potaro River village located in forested terrain along the Potaro River south of Kaieteur Falls. Menzies Landing, a small settlement that is a 20-minute walk upriver from Kaieteur Falls, is the main staging area for up river travel. Up river from the falls, the Potaro Plateau stretches out to the distant escarpment of the Pakaraima Mountains. Placer gold and diamonds are extracted from the river in this mineral-rich area. Individuals who pan for gold are referred to as Porkknockers. In the first half of the 20th century miners, employing primitive methods, recovered significant quantities of gem-quality diamonds from the area's rivers and