Key Facts about Congo River

About Congo River

• It is a River in west-central Africa. 
• It is also called the Zaire River.
• With a length of 2,900 miles (4,700 km), it is the continent’s second-longest river, after the Nile, and the ninth-longest in the world.
• The river gets its name from the ancient Kongo Kingdom, which existed near the mouth of the river.
• The Congo River system runs through the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, western Zambia, northern Angola, and parts of Cameroon and Tanzania.
• Course:
  • It rises in the highlands of northeastern Zambia between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa (Malawi) as the Chambeshi River at an elevation of 5,760 feet (1,760 metres).
  • Its course then takes the form of a giant counterclockwise arc, flowing to the northwest, west, and southwest before draining into the Atlantic Ocean at Banana (Banane) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • Its course through the rainforest causes it to cross the equator twice.
• It is the deepest river in the world. It reaches depths of over 750 feet (230 meters).
• The river also has the second-largest flow in the world, with a discharge of 1.5 million cubic feet of water per second, trailing only the Amazon, and the second-largest watershed of any river.
• It drains an area of 3.7 million square kilometers (1.4 million square miles) known as the Congo Basin.
  • Much of the basin is covered by rich tropical rainforests and swamps. Together these ecosystems make up the bulk of Central Africa's rainforest, which, at 178 million hectares (2005), is the world's second-largest rainforest, second only to the Amazon Rainforest in South America.
• The main tributaries are the Ubangi, Sangha, and Kasai.

Q1) Which is the longest river in the world?

The Nile River is the longest river in the world at 4,132 miles (6,650 km). It Flows from central Africa northward through northeastern Africa to the Mediterranean Sea and has three principal streams: the Blue Nile, the Atbara, and the White Nile.

Source: Hundreds dead as Congo River basin submerged by generational floods