Mount Everest

Mount Everest is the mountain that reaches the greatest height above sea level on the earth. It is situated in High Asia as part of the Himalaya mountain range on the border between Tibet and Nepal. Mount Everest is the English name; it is called Qomolangma in Chinese, Sagarmatha in Nepali (translated as 'goddess of the sky') and Chomolungma by the Tibetans (translated as 'mother goddess of the universe'). The mountain was named in English as no local name was known by the man who surveyed it in 1865: Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor-general of India. He named it after "my respected chief and predecessor, Colonel Sir George Everest", the British surveyor-general of India and the first person to record the height and location of the mountain which was also once known as Peak 15.

The mountain has been measured as different heights ranging from 29,000 feet (8,839 m) to 8,848 metres (29,028 feet). Accuracy is difficult, due to geological forces and the covering of snow and ice. The first time that the mountain was climbed in recorded history was in 1953 by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.