Rupununi

District of Guyana lying south of latitude 5°N; area 96,814 sq km/37,380 sq mi. Rupununi comprises some 45% of the total area of the country. The district takes its name from the Rupununi River, a tributary of the Essequibo. Other main rivers are the Berbice, Takatu, and Courantyne, while the principal mountain ranges are the Pacaraima, the Kanuku, and the Akarai. The population is mainly Amerindian, with some cattle ranchers, migrant miners, and forestry workers.

The main inhabited area of the region are the savannahs to the west, the remainder of the district being tropical rainforest.

The savannahs of Rupununi, which cover about 16,058 sq km/6,200 sq mi, are the site of a number of cattle ranches. The area consists of dry grassland, interspersed with low, gravelly hills and level tracts of white clay or sand, with occasional swamps. Some gold is also prospected here. The principal government station and airfield, Lethem, is located in the savannahs, near the Brazilian border.

The Amuku Mountains in the upper reaches of the Essequibo River were reputed to be the location of the legendary El Dorado, which fired the imagination of Sir Walter Raleigh and the Spanish conquistadores. A plan to create a homeland for the Jewish people in Rupununi, as an alternative to Palestine, was rejected as unfeasible by the British Colonial Office in the 1930s.