How long is the Congo River? Length and water volume
The Congo is about 4,700 km (2,900 miles) long. It is the second longest river in Africa after the Nile and the second largest river in the world by water, after the Amazon.
Lay the Congo over your country
The river and a country at one scale. Pick a country, drag the river or switch the globe to the Mercator map.
Congo: about 4,700 km (2,900 miles), about 1.2 times the straight-line distance from New York to Los Angeles (about 3,940 km).
Drag the river with your finger or mouse. It moves over the globe without changing shape or length, and its north stays up. The globe keeps the true proportions; on the Mercator map you can see how a river moved north grows.
Where the Congo flows
The most distant sources of the Congo lie on the highlands of northern Zambia, where the Chambeshi begins. The water continues through the Bangweulu swamps, the Luapula and the Lualaba, then in a great arc through the middle of Africa to the Atlantic Ocean. On the way the Congo crosses the equator twice.
The Congo basin covers about 3.46 million km². At its mouth the river carries about 41,000 m³/s of water on average, more than any other river except the Amazon.
Rivers of similar length, straightened
Rivers drawn at one scale. Straighten them to compare their lengths and see how they look on a Mercator map.
On a Mercator map: about 4,700 km
On a Mercator map the Congo looks about 4,700 km long (×1.01 its true length). Its course lies close to the equator, so the map barely stretches it.
Open the Mercator mapHow long is it really?
About 4,700 km is the length measured from the source of the Chambeshi. The upper river has several names (Chambeshi, Luapula, Lualaba), and lists differ on where the Congo itself begins.
The line on this page's maps is about 4,525 km long, shorter than the sources say, because a 1:10 million map smooths the bends and the mouth. That is why lengths here come from the sources, not from the drawing.
Congo: questions and answers
The Congo is about 4,700 km (2,900 miles) long according to Encyclopædia Britannica. It is the second longest river in Africa after the Nile.
The most distant sources of the Congo lie on the highlands of northern Zambia, on the upper Chambeshi River.
The Congo flows into the Atlantic Ocean on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.
The upper course runs through Zambia and along its border with the DR Congo. The river then crosses the Democratic Republic of the Congo, runs along the border with the Republic of the Congo and reaches the sea on the border with Angola.
About 41,000 m³/s at the mouth on average. Only the Amazon carries more (about 210,000 m³/s).