Congo is a river flowing in the heart of Africa. Her appearance is wild and mysterious, and history is shrouded in secrets. All the fantastic power of nature is felt in it. Even a dry description of the Congo River allows you to feel its power. It has 4667 km in length and carries 42,450 cubic meters into the ocean. water per second, second only to the Amazon. The source of the Congo River is located in the savannahs of Zambia, at an altitude of 1.5 km near the settlement of Mumen. In its upper reaches, it rapidly flows through narrow (30–50 m) gorges and forms rapids and waterfalls. Congo (river) got its name from the name of the state that once existed at its mouth.
Long flow path
After a long loop through the territory of Zambia, the Congo (river) appears on the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There, it merges with the Lualaba River and under this name, after 800 km, reaches the moist forests of Central Africa. Further, the stream flows directly to the north and, having covered a distance of about 1600 km, crosses the equator for the first time. After that, it turns west, describes a gigantic arc in the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and turns again, now south. Crosses the equator again, but flows already in the opposite direction.
Legends of the african jungle
Here, the Congo flows through the rainforests, which are the most impenetrable jungle in the world. Trees ascend to a height of 60 m, and eternal dusk reigns at their roots. Under this swaying green canopy in suffocating-humid heat, in dense thickets where a person can’t break through, there is a real hell inhabited by the most dangerous animals - crocodiles, poisonous snakes and boas, poisonous spiders and ants. Anyone at risk here to catch malaria, schistosis or any other, more formidable disease. Local residents have stories that it is in these suffocating swamps that the Mokele Mbemba dragon lives. Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Europeans noticed that in one of the marshy areas there are no hippos. Locals reported that there is a strange animal that, being smaller than a hippo, nevertheless attacks and kills them. Others, on the contrary, said that he looked like an elephant, only with a long neck and a muscular tail. If boats came close to him, then he attacked them. But this animal ate plants. I must say that strange traces of an unusual animal are found here to this day.
Waterfalls and rapids
In the north-eastern part of the arc are Boyoma waterfalls. This is a series of waterfalls and rapids along which the river descends to a height of 457 m over 100 km. From this place, already under the name Congo, the river is navigable and very wide (over 20 km wide) for 1609 km. Behind the site that separates the two capitals - Brazzaville and Kinshasa, are Livingston Falls, formed by the South Guinean Upland. It is 354 km with 32 waterfalls and a series of rapids. From the city of Matadi, the stream runs another 160 km and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. But a huge stream does not immediately slow down its run. On the ocean floor, it forms the Congo underwater channel, 800 km long. Its water on this stretch easily differs from the ocean water in its red-brown hue, which gives red soil blown from the depths of Africa.