Essequibo Mouth

The Essequibo opens into a broad Atlantic estuary on the Guiana coast. Islands divide the lower river into channels before its waters meet the sea. Dutch settlement in the basin grew around river forts, and in the eighteenth century Fort Zeelandia on Flag Island became the colonial centre. Mudbanks and mangrove-fringed shores are features of this low coast, where currents carry sediment northwest along the Guianas.