Guiana, region in the northeastern part of South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and extending between the Orinoco, Negro, and Amazon rivers. Its area of about 1,787,000 sq km (about 690,000 sq mi) embraces Guyana (formerly British Guiana), Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana), French Guiana, and small parts of Venezuela and Brazil. The region consists almost entirely of the Guiana Highlands, a rugged upland area covered by dense tropical rain forests.

The coast of Guiana was first visited in 1499-1500 by the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. The Dutch gained a permanent foothold at the head of the Essequibo delta in western Guiana in 1621, and were followed by the French who settled to the east and the English who took the mouth of the Suriname River to the north.