Congo - Brazzaville

The capital of the Republic of Congo, sitting on the Batéké Plateau above the Congo River opposite Kinshasa — a mid-Africa river city with a strong French-colonial fabric and a vibrant cultural life.

A dramatic sandstone gorge carved by the Diosso River near the town of Diosso in Kouilou Department, about 25 km north of Pointe-Noire — known locally as the 'Grand Canyon of the Congo' for its spectacular erosion-formed cliffs of pink and red sandstone rising to 50 m, draped in dense rainforest.

A large shallow lake in the Cuvette Department of north-western Republic of Congo, surrounded by swamp forest and part of the Congo River basin — most famously associated with reports of a large, unidentified aquatic creature in local folklore.

A 440 km² natural reserve north of Brazzaville in Djoué-Léfini Department, established in 1993 and designated a natural reserve by presidential decree in 1999 — dedicated to the protection of western lowland gorillas and their forest habitat on the Mbe Plateau, a Key Biodiversity Area together with the adjacent Léfini Faunal Reserve.

The oldest national park in Central Africa (1935), set in the Cuvette-Ouest region — a landscape of ancient volcanic hills, dense evergreen rainforest, and swamp valleys harbouring forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, and chimpanzees.

The economic capital and second-largest city of the Republic of Congo, on the Atlantic coast — a port city built on oil and a deep-water harbour, with a dramatic coastline of cliffs and rock formations, a lively food and music culture, and the Mayombe Forest rising behind the coastal plain.