The Himalayas, also called Himalaya, is the highest mountain range in the world. It is home to some of the planet's highest peaks. The Himalayan mountain range has 9 out of 10 of the world’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest. Because of the extreme height of the mountain range, the Himalaya is called the Third Pole.
Mount Everest is the highest peak of the Himalaya and is the world's highest peak with an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 meters). K2 is the second highest peak of the Himalayan mountain range and also the second highest peak on earth with an elevation of 28,251 feet (8,611 meters). Other famous peaks include Kailash, Kanchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna, and Manasklu. The Himalayas includes more than 110 peaks rising to elevations of 24,000 feet (7,300 meters) or more above sea level.
The Himalayas in Asia separates the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The mountain range covers approximately 2,400 kilometers. It crosses five countries: Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, and Pakistan, with the first three countries having sovereignty over most of the range.
The Himalayan range is far-reaching and holds within it a diverse ecology. The higher regions of the Himalayas are snowbound throughout the year, in spite of their proximity to the tropics, and they form the sources of several large perennial rivers of Asia. Three of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra all rise near Mount Kailash to cross and encircle the Himalayas.
Several places in the Himalaya are of religious significance in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Islam. A notable example of a religious site is Paro Taktsang, where Padmasambhava is said to have founded Buddhism in Bhutan.
The Himalayas features so many attractive points across the full 2,400 kilometers that it stretches. From some of the the highest peaks in the world to the expansive Pangong Tao lake and the Indo-Gangetic forest plain at the bottom of the range of the Terai belt, the Himalayas are, simply put, beautiful.
Himalayas - The Highest Mountain Range in the World
Himalayas - The Highest Mountain Range in the World
