Kinshasa skyline. Photo taken from Brazzaville across Congo river at sunset. Panoramic photo suitable for travel web sites.


Kinshasa (/kɪnˈʃɑːsə/; formerly Leopoldville (French: Léopoldville or Dutch About this sound Leopoldstad (help·info))) is the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is on the Congo River. Once a site of fishing villages, Kinshasa is now an urban area with a 2014 population of over 11 million.[2] It faces Brazzaville, the capital of the neighboring Republic of the Congo, which can be seen in the distance across the wide Congo River, making them the two closest capital cities on Earth. The city of Kinshasa is also one of the DRC's 26 provinces. Because the administrative boundaries of the city-province cover a vast area, over 90% of the city-province's land is rural in nature, and the urban area only occupies a small section in the far western end of the city-province.[1] Kinshasa is Africa's third-largest urban area after Cairo and Lagos.[2] It is also the world's largest "francophone" urban area (recently surpassing Paris in population),[4][5] with French being the language of government, schools, newspapers, public services and high-end commerce in the city, while Lingala is used as a lingua franca in the street.[6] Kinshasa hosted the 14th Francophonie Summit in October 2012.[7] Residents of Kinshasa are known as Kinois (in French and sometimes in English) or Kinshasans (English).


Size: 5574px × 2237px
Location: Kinshasa Congo, Africa
Photo credit: © Andreas Athitakis / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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