Key facts
- River system
- Congo Basin
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Chambeshi (or Chambezi) River of northeastern Zambia is the most remote headstream of the Congo River (in length) and therefore it is considered the source of the Congo River. (However, by volume of water, the Lualaba River provides a greater streamflow to the Congo.)
The Chambeshi rises as a stream in the mountains of northeast Zambia near Lake Tanganyika at an elevation of 1,760 metres (5,770 ft) above sea level. It flows for 480 km into the Bangweulu Wetlands, which are part of Lake Bangweulu. By the end of the rainy season in May, the river delivers a flood which recharges the wetlands and inundates the Zambezian grasslands to the southeast. The water then flows out of the wetlands as the Luapula River.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chambeshi River” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.