Kongo River

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

a Central African river, which Stanley proposed to call the Livingstone. At its mouth on the Atlantic seaboard the Kongo is an immense body of water, nearly 10 miles wide, and over 1,300 feet in depth. Its upper course remained unknown till Stanley identified the Kongo with the Lualaba, and so connected it immediately with the great system of lakes S. and W. of Lake Tanganyika, and less directly with Tanganyika itself. From the Chibalé Mountains to its mouth it has a length of 2,900 miles; by its great and numerous tributaries (such as the Alima, Kwango, Kasai, Ruru) it is said to drain an area of 1,300,000 square miles. It has but one mouth and no delta, and brings down a volume of water exceeded only by the an aze Amazon. From the great lake-like expanse of Stanley Pool vessels can steam 1,000 miles into the heart of Africa. KÖNIGGRATZ (-grāts), s), a town of Bohemia, Austria, on the Elbe; 73 miles E. by N. of Prague. A signal victory was gained here by 240,000 Prussians over 220,000 Austrians on July 3, 1866. osi victory The Austrians name the battle Sadowa Prass from an adjoining village nearer the center of the battlefield. Pop., 11,000. 1866. My ttle Sadowa KÖNIGSBERG, a town and fortress in arer the con- East Prussia, Germany, on the Pregel 11,000. river; 366 miles N. E. of Berlin. The original nucleus of the place was the blockhouse built in 1255 by the Knights of the Teutonic Order. It was the headquarters of the grandmaster of the Order, and from 1525 to 1618 was the residence of the Dukes of Prussia. In the castle chapel (built in 1592) Frederick I. crowned himself first king of Prussia in 1701, and William I. was crowned in 1861. The Kneiphof parish church is a Gothic structure, erected in 1333; in an adjoining building KANT (q. v.) lies buried. The university was founded as a Lutheran institution in 1544. The town was first fortified in 1626. By the treaty signed here in 1656 the duchy of East Prussia acknowledged the suzerainty of Sweden, instead of Poland. Königsberg was occupied by the Russians in 1758 and by the French in 1807. In the World War the place suffered by the Russian invasion in 1914, but the Germans soon recovered the town. Pop. about 250,000. Vol. V-Cyc-X KÖNIGSTEIN KÖNIGSTEIN, a fortress of Saxony, once regarded as impregnable, but now of no military importance, on a rock 800 feet above the Elbe, 24 miles S. E. of Dresden. Here the Saxon army yielded to Frederick the Great in 1756.