 To the Southeast, across the Lawa River is the French Guyanese place Maripasoula.Southwest of the village is Fatu Switie, a mountain ridge with an altitude of about 375 meters.Around 1885, gold was found in this area between the Lawa and the Tapanahony rivers, but because there was a disputed border between the Dutch and the French colony, the case was submitted to Russian Tsar Alexander III who in May 1891 awarded the area to Suriname.