The Himalayas
"Namaste, I was blessed to have the opportunity in late 2012 to meet Mount Everest up close and personal personally. The majestic beauty of Everest and the Himalayan mountain range is breathtaking and awe-inspiring. The Sherpa people, Porters, and people I met in Nepal are incredibly giving and kind. I used many of my firsthand experiences as material when writing Peak XV. The Himalayas cover roughly 75% of Nepal. Due to tectonic plate movement, the Himalayas grow taller every year."
– Stephen Shields
Himalayan Mountain Range
The Himalayan mountain range and Tibetan plateau have formed due to the collision between the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate, which began 50 million years ago and continues today. Two hundred twenty-five million years ago (Ma), India was a large island off the Australian coast and separated from Asia by the Tethys Ocean; Himalayas, Nepali Himalaya, great mountain system of Asia forming a barrier between the Plateau of Tibet to the north and the alluvial plains of the Indian subcontinent to the south. The Himalayas include the highest mountains in the world, with more than 110 peaks rising to 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) or above sea level. One of those peaks is Mount Everest (Tibetan: Chomolungma; Chinese: Qomolangma Feng; Nepali: Sagarmatha), the world's highest, with an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 meters; see Researcher's Note: Height of Mount Everest. The mountains' high peaks rise into the zone of perpetual snow.
The ranges, which form the northern border of the Indian subcontinent and an almost impassable barrier between it and the lands to the north, are part of a vast mountain belt that stretches halfway around the world from North Africa to the Pacific Ocean coast of Southeast Asia. The Himalayas themselves extend uninterruptedly for about 1,550 miles (2,500 km) from west to east between Nanga Parbat (26,660 feet [8,126 meters]), in the Pakistani-administered portion of the Kashmir region and Namjagbarwa (Namcha Barwa) Peak (25,445 feet [7,756 meters]), in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Between those western and eastern extremities lie the two Himalayan countries of Nepal and Bhutan.
The Hindu Kush and the Karakoram mountain ranges border the Himalayas to the northwest and the north by Tibet's high and vast Plateau. The width of the Himalayas from south to north varies between 125 and 250 miles (200 and 400 km). Their total area is about 230,000 square miles (595,000 square km).
Though India, Nepal, and Bhutan have sovereignty over most of the Himalayas, Pakistan and China occupy parts. For example, in the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistan has administrative control of some 32,400 square miles (83,900 square km) of the range lying north and west of the “line of control” established between India and Pakistan in 1972. China administers some 14,000 square miles (36,000 square km) in the Ladakh district of Kashmir and has claimed territory at the eastern end of the Himalayas within the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. Those disputes accentuate the boundary problems India and its neighbors face in the Himalayan region.
Have a question? CLICK TO EMAIL
and we’ll get back to you soon.