On the morning of 17 January 2002, the southern flank of Nyiragongo cracked open and a tongue of lava flowed straight through the centre of Goma to Lake Kivu. About forty per cent of the town was destroyed, around two hundred people died, and an estimated 350,000 were displaced into Rwanda overnight. More than two decades on, the black, rope-like rock is still everywhere in the city — entire streets sit on top of the old flow, and shop fronts and houses have been rebuilt at first-floor level on what used to be ground level.
There is no formal viewing area. A walk through the central commercial district, or down toward the lake along the route the flow took, is the visit. The lava field around the former airport runway is particularly stark — the runway was cut in half and partly rebuilt on the hardened flow. A local guide can show where churches and the cathedral were buried and explain how the city's geography was rewritten in a single afternoon.