Jodensavanne Archaeological Site: Jodensavanne Settlement and Cassipora Creek Cemetery

On forested bluffs above the Suriname River lie the remains of Jodensavanne, a settlement founded by Jewish colonists in the 1680s that held what may be the earliest architecturally significant synagogue in the Americas. Nearby, the Cassipora Creek Cemetery marks an even older community established in the 1650s. Jews owned and governed these settlements amid Indigenous territory, living alongside free and enslaved people of African and Indigenous descent — a layered story that earned the site UNESCO World Heritage status in 2023.