And a long history of colonialism began.
Over the centuries, the Congo River has inspired both mystery and legend, from the explorations of Henry Morton Stanley and David Livingstone in the 1870s, to Joseph Conrad, whose novel, Heart of Darkness transformed the river into an eternal symbol of the "dark continent" of Africa.
Characteristics
The Congo River is approximately 2,720 mi long (4,375 km), and its drainage basin consists of about 1.3 million mi2 (3.6 million km2). The basin encompasses nearly the entire Democratic Republic of the Congo (capital: Kinshasa), Republic of Congo (capital: Brazzaville), Central African Republic, eastern Zambia, northern Angola, and parts of Cameroon and Tanzania. The river headwaters emerge at the junction of the Lualaba (the Congo's largest tributary) and Luvua rivers. The flow is generally to the northeast first, then west, and finally south to its outlet into the Atlantic Ocean at Banana, Republic of Congo.
The Congo basin comprises one of the most distinct land depressions between the Sahara desert to its north, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and west. The river's tributaries flow down slopes varying from 900 to 1,500 ft (274 to about 457 m) into the central depression forming the basin.
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