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Mbanza-Ngungu Territory
Mbanza-Ngungu, formerly known as Thysville or Thysstad, named after Albert Thys, is a city and territory in Kongo Central Province in the western part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, lying on a short branch off the Matadi-Kinshasa Railway. It has a population of nearly 100,000 people. Overview Formerly known as a resort town, it is home to the Thysville Caves, which encompass the entire range of the colourless African blind barb. It is home to a major FARDC garrison: the 1st Armoured Brigade was based here during the early 1990s period.Ed. by Sandra W. Meditz and Tim MerrillCountry Study for Zaire 1993, Library of Congress The 1st Armoured Brigade was first listed in the IISS Military Balance in 1982-83 edition, implying that the brigade may have been created during that period.IISS Military Balance 82/83, page 71 The city's other main industry is railway engineering. The city is currently the main site of Kongo University. Gallery Swiss photographer Annemarie Schwa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kongo Central
Kongo Central ( kg, Kongo dia Kati ), formerly Bas-Congo is one of the 26 provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its capital is Matadi. History At the time of independence, the area now encompassing Kongo Central was part of the greater province of Kinshasa, Léopoldville, along with the capital city of Kinshasa and the districts of Kwango District, Kwango, Kwilu District, Kwilu and Mai-Ndombe District, Mai-Ndombe. Under Belgian colonial rule, the province was known as Bas-Congo District, Bas-Congo (as in "Lower Congo River") and was renamed Kongo Central after independence. (Article 1) Under the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko from 1965 to 1997, the Congo river was renamed as ''Zaire''. The province was named as Bas-Zaïre. The name was later reverted to Bas-Congo. It was subsequently renamed as Kongo Central in 2015. Geography Kongo Central is the only province in the country with an ocean coastline; it has narrow frontage on the Atlantic Ocean. It borders the prov ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Africa Time
West Africa Time, or WAT, is a time zone used in west-central Africa. West Africa Time is one hour ahead of Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC+01:00), which aligns it with Central European Time (CET) during winter, and Western European Summer Time (WEST) / British Summer Time (BST) during summer. As most of this time zone is in the tropical region, there is little change in day length throughout the year and therefore daylight saving time is not observed. West Africa Time is the time zone for the following countries: * (as Central European Time) * * * * * * (western side only) * * * (as Central European Time) * * * * (as Central European Time) * Countries west of Benin (except Morocco and Western Sahara) are in the UTC±0 time zone. Civil time in most of those countries is defined with reference to Greenwich Mean Time (now an alias for UTC±0, rather than an independent reference). References See also * Central European Time, an equivalent time zone covering most E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Thys
Albert Thys (28 November 1849 – 10 February 1915) was a Belgian businessman who was active in the Congo Free State. He gave his name of Thysville to the station of Sona Qongo, currently Mbanza-Ngungu in Bas-Congo. Born in Dalhem, Thys graduated at the École de guerre, before entering into the service of king Leopold II of Belgium in 1876, as secretary of the colonial businesses. After the return of Henry Morton Stanley, the king sent Thys to England to propose a new expedition to Central Africa on behalf of the Association Internationale Africaine. Thys was actively involved in the organisation of the first expeditions which would lead to the constitution of the Congo Free State. After arriving in Congo in 1887 he promoted the Matadi-Léopoldville Railway, which was built from 1890 to 1898. The living conditions in the construction of this railway were miserable. The sanitary and medical facilities were insufficient. In 1892, about two thousand people worked on the rail ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Democratic Republic Of Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in Central Africa. It is bordered to the northwest by the Republic of the Congo, to the north by the Central African Republic, to the northeast by South Sudan, to the east by Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi, and by Tanzania (across Lake Tanganyika), to the south and southeast by Zambia, to the southwest by Angola, and to the west by the South Atlantic Ocean and the Cabinda exclave of Angola. By area, it is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world. With a population of around 108 million, the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most populous officially Francophone country in the world. The national capital and largest city is Kinshasa, which is also the nation's economic center. Centered on the Congo Ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Resort
A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort'' may be used for a hotel property that provides an array of amenities, typically including entertainment and recreational activities. A hotel is frequently a central feature of a resort, such as the Grand Hotel at Mackinac Island, Michigan. Some resorts are also condominium complexes that are timeshares or owned fractionally or wholly owned condominium. A resort is not always a commercial establishment operated by a single company, but in the late 20th century, that sort of facility became more common. In British English, "resort" means a town which people visit for holidays and days out which usually contains hotels at which such holidaymakers stay. Examples would include Blackpool and Brighton. Destination resort A destinatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thysville Caves
The Thysville Caves are a cave complex in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located near the town of Mbanza-Ngungu (formerly Thysville). The cave complex is fed by tributaries of the Lower Congo River, and extends across an area of 750 square kilometers. Flowing water carries nutrients from the surface into the caves, which nourishes aquatic life adapted to the lightless environment. The caves are home to an endemic blind cyprinid fish, ''Caecobarbus geertsii'', listed as vulnerable in the IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol .... The caves are relatively unknown scientifically, and may be home to other endemic fish and invertebrate species. References * Toham, Andre Kamdem ''et al.'', eds. (2006). ''A Vision for Biodiversity Conservation in Central Afric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Blind Barb
''Caecobarbus geertsi'', the African blind barb or Congo blind barb (known as ''Nzonzi a mpofo'' in the local Kikongo language, meaning "blind barb"), is a species of cyprinid fish. This threatened cavefish is only known from Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Caecobarbus''. George Albert Boulenger described this fish in 1921 and it apparently lacks any close relatives in the Congo region. Despite its common name, "African blind barb", other blind cave cyprinids are indigenous to Africa, notably the Somalian ''Barbopsis devecchi'' and ''Phreatichthys andruzzii''. Range The Congo blind barb is found only in the Thysville Cave system, a part of the lower Congo River basin (notably Kwilu and Inkisi tributaries) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The area where found covers about , and is located at an altitude around above sea level. It was initially known from seven caves in the Thysville system and an additional seven we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FARDC
The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: Forces armées de la république démocratique du Congo [FARDC]) is the armed forces, state organisation responsible for defending the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The FARDC was rebuilt patchily as part of the peace process which followed the end of the Second Congo War in July 2003. The majority of FARDC members are land forces, but it also has a small air force and an even smaller navy. In 2010–2011 the three services may have numbered between 144,000 and 159,000 personnel. In addition, there is a presidential force called the Republican Guard (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Republican Guard, but it and the Congolese National Police (PNC) are not part of the Armed Forces. The government in the capital city Kinshasa, the United Nations, the European Union, and bilateral partners which include Angola, South Africa, and Belgium are attempting to create a viable force with the ability to provide the Dem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garrison
A garrison (from the French ''garnison'', itself from the verb ''garnir'', "to equip") is any body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it. The term now often applies to certain facilities that constitute a military base or fortified military headquarters. A garrison is usually in a city, town, fort, castle, ship, or similar site. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby. "Garrison towns" ( ar, أمصار, amsar) were used during the Arab Islamic conquests of Middle Eastern lands by Arab-Muslim armies to increase their dominance over indigenous populations. In order to occupy non-Arab, non-Islamic areas, nomadic Arab tribesmen were taken from the desert by the ruling Arab elite, conscripted into Islamic armies, and settled into garrison towns as well as given a share in the spoils of war. The primary utility of the Arab-Islamic garrisons was to control the indigenous non-Arab peoples of these conque ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Library Of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; it also maintains a conservation center in Culpeper, Virginia. The library's functions are overseen by the Librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol. The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its "collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages." Congress moved to Washington, D.C., in 1800 after holding sessions for eleven years in the temporary national capitals in New York City and Philadelphia. In both cities, members of the U.S. Congress had access to the sizable collection ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railway Engineering
Railway engineering is a multi-faceted engineering discipline dealing with the design, construction and operation of all types of rail transport systems. It encompasses a wide range of engineering disciplines, including civil engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial engineering and production engineering. A great many other engineering sub-disciplines are also called upon. History With the advent of the railways in the early nineteenth century, a need arose for a specialized group of engineers capable of dealing with the unique problems associated with railway engineering. As the railways expanded and became a major economic force, a great many engineers became involved in the field, probably the most notable in Britain being Richard Trevithick, George Stephenson and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Today, railway systems engineering continues to be a vibrant field of engineering. Subfields *Mechanical engineering * Command, con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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