Scientist claims "Guyana today is still as it was 150 years ago!"

In the mid-19th century, the British government sent German Robert Schomburgk on an expedition to Guyana. Now Dutch researcher Ben Ter Welle has compared the explorer’s descriptions with his own impressions. Result: everything is still as it was then.

By Bernhard Grdseloff (C) 2005

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Schomburgk, originally from Freyburg in Germany, explored Guyana between 1835 and 1844. Financial support from the Royal Geographical Society enabled him to go on two several-year river and land expeditions.

"I came across his books 2 years ago purely by coincidence," says Ben Ter Welle, a biologist who himself has been doing research in Guyana for 25 years. "Everything is just as Schomburgk described it, the savannah, the tropical forest, the American Indians, the fish species, the wildlife," he states. "People used to mainly travel along the rivers and they still do so today, except that now there are helicopters and airplanes in case something goes wrong."

Schomburgks work had fallen into oblivion. Now a book is being written about his expeditions, on the occasion of the explorer’s birthday 200 years ago, in June 1804.

Guyana's rivers: main travel routes as 150 years ago