Lake Tumba and Congo River

This Envisat ASAR Wide-Swath radar artificially coloured image shows Lake Tumba (Ntomba), and next to it the longest river in Central Africa, the Congo River, which flows 4,374 kilometres (2,718 miles) from Zambia to the Atlantic Ocean. The Congo also gives its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo, both countries lying along its banks. The river is also called the Zaire and is noted for its enormous basin, which includes all of Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and portions of Angola, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo and Cameroon, making it the largest drainage basin in Africa. The cities of Kinshasa and Brazzaville are on opposite sides of the river at the Pool (bottom image), then the river narrows and falls through a number of cataracts in deep canyons and onward to the sea.