Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo, often called Congo-Brazzaville to distinguish it from its much larger neighbor across the river, is a Central African nation where impenetrable rainforest meets surprising urban style. Brazzaville and Kinshasa face each other across the Congo River, making them the closest pair of capital cities in the world, but the two Congos could not be more different in character. This one is quieter, smaller, and home to the Sapeurs - working-class men who spend their savings on designer suits and strut through dusty streets with the elegance of Parisian models.

Beyond the cities, the country is dominated by the Congo Basin, the second-largest tropical rainforest on Earth. Western lowland gorillas roam the Odzala-Kokoua National Park in numbers found almost nowhere else, and the northern forests remain some of the least explored wilderness in Africa. Oil wealth funds the economy, but the real treasure is in the forest canopy and along the riverbanks where traditional fishing communities have lived largely unchanged for centuries.