The continent of Africa is home to some incredible and diverse landscapes – ranging from vast deserts and towering mountains, to lush rainforests and savannahs which make for the perfect safari.
Yet the country is also home to some incredible stretches of water. This includes the Nile, Africa’s longest river and one of the longest in the world.
Further south lies the continent’s second longest – the Congo River, formerly the Zaire River – which is also the world’s deepest-recorded river.
This incredible waterway has measured depths which would even fit many of the UK’s tallest residential buildings.
The Congo River flows through a staggering ten countries in central Africa – the DRC, the Republic of Congo, the CAR, Zambia, Angola, Cameroon, Tanzania, Gabon and Burundi – and has a total length of 2,900 miles.
It is also the only major river to cross the Equator not just once, but twice.
In 1979, Peter Forbath wrote in his book on the river: “Not until it crosses the Equator will it at last turn away from this misleading course and, describing a remarkable counter-clockwise arc first to the west and then to the southwest, flow back across the Equator and on down to the Atlantic.”
The Congo River has measured depths of around 220 metres (720ft). This is around the same height as Newfoundland Place in Canary Wharf, London, which is considered one of the tallest residential buildings in the city and the whole of the UK.
At this depth, the river could also contain the iconic 225 Liberty Street Skyscraper in New York City (197 metres) and Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (207 metres).
As if this weren’t enough records, the Congo River is also recognised as the third-largest river by discharge volume in the world, only behind the Amazon and the Ganges river in Asia.
The Congo Basin has a total area of about 1.5 million square miles, or 13% of the entire African landmass. This is also an area nearly equal to that of the entire European Union.
The river and its tributaries flow through the Congo rainforest, the second largest rainforest area in the world, after the Amazon rainforest in South America. Its sources are in the highlands and mountains of the East African Rift, as well as Lake Tanganyika and Lake Mweru, which feed the Lualaba River, which then becomes the Congo below the Boyoma Falls.
Although the Livingstone Falls prevent access from the sea, nearly the entire Congo above them is readily navigable in sections, especially between Kinshasa and Kisangani.
The Congo River remains a lifeline lands with few roads or railways. Railways now bypass the three major falls and much of the Central African trade passes along the river, including copper, palm oil kernels, sugar, coffee and cotton.
The Congo River is the most powerful river in Africa. During the rainy season over 50,000 cubic metres of water per second flows into the Atlantic Ocean, meaning the opportunities for the river and its tributaries to generate hydropower are enormous.
Scientists have calculated that the entire Congo Basin accounts for 13% of global hydropower potential, which would provide sufficient power for all of Sub-Saharan Africa’s electricity needs.