M'banza-Kongo

M'banza-Kongo is a city of 175,000 in Northern Angola, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Get in
The shorter way to get into M'banza-Kongo from DRC is via Lufu/Luvo land port. However as of 2023 November travelers have reported corrupt Angolese border police gives travelers trouble by demanding bribe and denying entry otherwise.

So consider using Matadi -> Noqui border point -> Mepala route as an alternative when getting into Angola.

See
The city and its cultural landscape of both precolonial and colonial has been designated a World Heritage Site. While many buildings were ruined in the Angolan Civil War, some historic sights remain.




 * Memorial to the mother of King Afonso I of Kongo near the airport. It commemorates a popular legend that began in the 1680s that the king had buried his mother alive because she was not willing to give up an "idol" which she wore around her neck.
 * The Jalankuwo, the Manikongo's judgement tree, can still be found in the downtown area of the city, along with sunguilu, a rectangular ground level structure where local tradition says the king's body was washed before burial, both on the grounds of the royal palace and present day Royal Museum.
 * The Royal Museum, rebuilt as a modern structure, houses an impressive collection of artifacts from the old Kingdom, even though many were lost from the older building during the Civil War of 1976–2002.