The Congo River, which flows through the center of Africa, is the sixth longest river in the world.
It begins in northwest Zambia as the Chambeshi River, and flows northward and then westward for 4,700km (2,900mi).
The Congo's drainage basin covers 3,457,000sq.km (1,335,000sq.mi), five times the size of the state of Texas.
Much of it is in The Democratic Republic of Congo, in a vast depression surrounded by mountains and plateaus, from the Rift Valley escarpment in the east to the Cristal Mountains in the west, and from Angola's Lunda Plateau in the south to the Central African Republic's Ubangi Plateau in the north.
The Congo discharges 43,300 cubic meters (1,460,000 cubic feet) of water into the Atlantic Ocean each second. The only river on Earth with a greater rate of discharge is the Amazon.
It begins in northwest Zambia as the Chambeshi River, and flows northward and then westward for 4,700km (2,900mi).
The Congo's drainage basin covers 3,457,000sq.km (1,335,000sq.mi), five times the size of the state of Texas.
Much of it is in The Democratic Republic of Congo, in a vast depression surrounded by mountains and plateaus, from the Rift Valley escarpment in the east to the Cristal Mountains in the west, and from Angola's Lunda Plateau in the south to the Central African Republic's Ubangi Plateau in the north.
The Congo discharges 43,300 cubic meters (1,460,000 cubic feet) of water into the Atlantic Ocean each second. The only river on Earth with a greater rate of discharge is the Amazon.
