The mighty River Congo dominates every aspect of life in the Congo Basin.Running 4,700 kilometres across Africa, the river cuts through the impenetrable rainforest from east to west, discharging 42,500 tonnes of water every second into the Atlantic. Joseph Conrad, author of Heart of Darkness, describes the river as resembling “an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.”The staggering size and power of the river comes from its position on the equator – the part of our planet that recieves the most heat from the sun. As hot air rises high into the atmosphere over the equator it carries moisture with it in waves of heat called convection currents.The moist air reaches a height where it cools enough to condense from vapour into water – causing it to fall back to Earth as millions of litres of rain.
This constant cycle of rising hot air causes massive amounts of rainfall in the Congo Basin.Once on the ground the water filters into the River Congo through a labyrinth of small streams and rivers covering an area larger than India.The rain, heat and humidity provide perfect conditions for plants to grow, resulting in a blanket of dense jungle stetching across Africa.