Mountains of Kong: a dazzling world that never was

Say it’s the 1800s, and you’re a rich sort of gent, spending the evening at your London club. In the fug of cigar smoke, you unroll a crisp new map of Africa, the “dark” continent whose uncharted interior has all of England in a frenzy. Armchair exploring is all the rage, and here, in front of you, is evidence of the latest discovery: a vast range of peaks and ridges stretching east to west across Africa’s middle – the mighty Mountains of Kong.