The World's Highest Mountain: Mount Everest

World's Highest Mountain: Everest Facts and Figures

Mount Everest, on the border between Nepal and China, is the highest mountain on Earth above sea level. A joint survey by Nepal and China in 2020 measured its height at 8,848.86 metres. Did you know that, depending on how you measure, two other mountains can also claim the title of highest?

Everest in Numbers

  • Height: 8,848.86 metres above sea level.
  • Range: the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas.
  • Local names: Sagarmatha in Nepali and Chomolungma in Tibetan.
  • First ascent: Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, on 29 May 1953.

Why Is Everest So High?

The Himalayas were formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which began around 50 million years ago and still continues. This collision is slowly pushing the mountains upwards, while erosion wears them down.

Climbing Everest today

Hundreds of climbers try to reach the summit each spring. Most use supplementary oxygen, because the air near the top contains only about a third of the oxygen available at sea level. The area above 8,000 metres is known as the death zone, where the body cannot adapt.

Two Other Candidates

Mauna Kea in Hawaii rises over 10,000 metres from its base on the ocean floor, making it the tallest mountain measured from base to summit. Chimborazo in Ecuador is the point on Earth farthest from the planet's centre, because the Earth bulges at the equator.

Türkiye's Highest Mountain

Türkiye's highest peak is Mount Ağrı (Ararat) at 5,137 metres, a dormant volcano in the far east of the country. In Antalya, the highest point is Kızlar Sivrisi in the Bey Mountains, at just over 3,000 metres.

Everest and its neighbours

Everest is surrounded by other giants. K2 on the Pakistan–China border is the second highest mountain in the world, and Kangchenjunga, Lhotse and Makalu complete the top five. All of them lie in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges of Asia, where every peak above 8,000 metres is found.

Fourteen mountains on Earth rise above 8,000 metres, and climbing all of them is considered one of the greatest challenges in mountaineering.