Congo River

The Congo River (also known as the Zaire River; French: (le) fleuve Congo/Zaïre; Portuguese: rio Congo/Zaire) is a river in Africa. It is the second largest river in the world by discharge (after the Amazon), and the world's deepest river with measured depths in excess of 220 m (720 ft). The Congo-Chambeshi river has an overall length of 4,700 km (2,920 mi), which makes it the ninth longest river (in terms of discharge, the Chambeshi is a tributary of the Lualaba River, Lualaba being the name of the Congo River upstream of the Boyoma Falls, extending for 1,800 km). Measured along the Lualaba, the Congo River has a total length of 4,370 km (2,715 mi). It crosses the equator twice. The Congo Basin has a total area of about 4 million km², or 13% of the entire African landmass.

Name

The River Congo got its name from the Kingdom of Kongo which was situated on the left banks of the river estuary. The kingdom is in turn named for its Bantu population, in the 17th century reported as Esikongo. South of the Kongo kingdom proper lay the similarly named Kakongo kingdom, mentioned in 1535. Abraham Ortelius in his world map of 1564 labels as Manicongo the city at the mouth of the river. The tribal names in kongo possibly derive from a word for a public gathering or tribal assembly.

Congo River (disambiguation)

Congo River or Río Congo may refer to:

See also

Congo River (Ecuador)

The Congo River (Ecuador) is a river of Ecuador.

See also

References