The Chambeshi (or Chambezi) River of northeastern
Zambia
Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...
is the most remote
headstream of the
Congo River
The Congo River, formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second-longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the third-largest river in the world list of rivers by discharge, by discharge volume, following the Amazon Ri ...
(in length) and therefore it is considered the source of the Congo River. (However, by volume of water, the
Lualaba River
The Lualaba River (, , ) flows entirely within the eastern part of Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the River source, source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi River, Chambeshi ...
provides a greater
streamflow to the Congo.)
The Chambeshi rises as a
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
in the
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...
s of northeast Zambia near
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...
at an elevation of 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
The rainy season is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs.
Rainy Season may also refer to:
* ''Rainy Season'' (short story), a 1989 short horror story by Stephen King
* "Rainy Season", a 2018 song by Monni
* '' ...
in May, the river delivers a
flood
A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
which recharges the wetlands and
inundates the Zambesian grasslands to the southeast. The water then flows out of the wetlands as the
Luapula River
The Luapula River is a north-flowing river of central Africa, within the Congo River watershed. It rises in the wetlands of Lake Bangweulu (Zambia), which are fed by the Chambeshi River. The Luapula flows west then north, marking the border betw ...
.
For more than 100 km of its length as it flows to the east of
Kasama, the river consists of a maze of channels in wetlands about 2 km wide, in a
floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...
up to 25 km wide. Further downstream, where it is bridged by the
Kasama–Mpika road and the
Tazara Railway, the permanent main channel is about 100 m wide, and up to 400 m wide in flood.
[Google Earth accessed 4 February 2007]
References
External links
Chambeshi River Floodsat
NASA Earth Observatory
Rivers of Zambia
Lake Bangweulu
Tributaries of the Congo River
{{Zambia-river-stub