Grottes de Mbanza-Ngungu

Thysville Caves


Useful Information

Location: Mbanza-Ngungu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
5km southeast of the city, in the village of Mbamba-Ntoto. 150 km from Kinshasa.
(-5.286058, 14.8770180)
Open: no restrictions.
[2024]
Fee: free.
[2024]
Classification: SpeleologyKarst Cave
Light: bring torch
Dimension:
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:
Address: Grottes de Mbanza-Ngungu
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
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History

1915 discovered by the Belgian Colonel Tordeur.

Description

The Grottes de Mbanza-Ngungu (Mbanza Ngungu Caves) are semi-wild caves, which are located near the town Mbanza-Ngungu, hence the name. As this village was formerly named Thysville or Thysstad, after Albert Thys, a Belgian businessman who promoted the Matadi-Léopoldville Railway. He was a traditional colonialist, in other words he exploited the locals with extremely bad working and living conditions, which is probably the reason why the village was later renamed. However, the cave was formerly known as Thysville Caves, which was changed when the name of the town was changed.

In this case, the plural is actually correct, as this is a karst area with numerous caves, and this is actually a group of caves. The caves, which are open to the public, have been upgraded with minimal development, like stairs at the most dangerous climbs. However, they are still in a more or less undeveloped state, there is a lot of wading through cave rivers and even a little climbing. The caves which are open to the public are:

It's hard to get information on the caves, and there are no regular open hours nor websites or contact data. It seems the caves are guided by the locals, who are happy to show the caves to visitors. Also, there are day trips and multi-day travels which include a visit to the caves. In such dangerous countries and with such wild caves, we strongly recommend such guided tours because they increase safety dramatically. Also, we are not sure if the coordinates we give are actually valid, so its probably essential to have a guide to even find them. And finally, we strongly recommend bringing the necessary equipment, the locals visit the cave in flip-flops with a candle, which does not meet our safety concerns.