Kinshasa–Brazzaville is a
transborder agglomeration
A transborder agglomeration is an urban area, urban agglomeration or conurbation that extends into multiple sovereign states and/or dependent territory, dependent territories. It includes city-states that agglomerate with their neighbouring countr ...
comprising
Kinshasa
Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...
, the capital of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
, and
Brazzaville
Brazzaville () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Republic of the Congo. Administratively, it is a Departments of the Republic of the Congo, department and a Communes of the Republic of the Congo, commune. Constituting t ...
, the capital of the
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...
, which face each other across 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 addition to being the closest national capitals by proximity, it is the third largest urban agglomeration on the African continent, behind
Lagos
Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...
and
Greater Cairo
The Greater Cairo () is a metropolitan area centered around Cairo, Egypt. It comprises the entirety of the Cairo Governorate, the cities of Imbaba and Giza in the Giza Governorate, and the city Shubra El Kheima in Qalyubia Governorate. Its def ...
. The two cities currently do not have a bridge between each other, and
numerous attempts to link the two by bridge have yet to materialize.
Airline connections
There are commercial airline flights between the two cities on
ASKY Airlines; the flights, among the shortest international flights in the world, last about five minutes each way, usually.
References
Kinshasa
Brazzaville
Transborder agglomerations
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