Aerial view of the Congo River near Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. - Photo: MONUSCO/Myriam Asmani, CC BY-SA 2.0
RIVERS are a source of life and many civilisations have risen and fallen on the banks of some of the major waterways of the world.
Even right here in Malaysia, rivers play and important role, with Kuala Lumpur (or "Muddy Confluence") having its origins where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet.
As large as some rivers can get, it is rare to hear of rivers crossing the Equator, what's more crossing it twice.
Is it true that a major river crosses the Equator twice?
VERDICT:
TRUE
The mighty Congo River, the third largest river in the world by discharge volume, does just this.
Measured along with its main tributary, the Lualaba River, the Congo River runs a total of 4,370km, crossing the Equator twice.
In his 1979 book The River Congo: The Discovery, Exploration and Exploitation of the World's Most Dramatic River, author Peter Forbath says, "Not until it crosses the Equator will it at last turn away from this misleading course and, describing a remarkable counter-clockwise arc first to the west and then to the southwest, flow back across the Equator and on down to the Atlantic.
"In this the Congo is exceptional. No other major river in the world crosses the Equator even once, let alone twice."
The Congo River and its tributaries also flow through the second largest rainforest are in the world, after South America's Amazon rainforest.
Sources:
2: https://worldrainforests.com/
