Mount Sinai (Arabic: طور سيناء, Ṭūr Sīnā’) (Hebrew: הר סיני, Har Sinai), also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa (Egyptian Arabic accent), Jabal Musa (standard Arabic meaning "Moses' Mountain") by the Bedouin, is the name of a mountain in Saint Katherine city, in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. In Arabic the words jabal and ṭūr have similar meanings, and Mount Sinai is mentioned in the Quran chapter 'The Fig' (Sūrat al-Tīn) as "Ṭūr Sīnīn". Jabal Musa is the Bedouin and Christian traditional location of the Biblical Mount Sinai.

Geography

Mount Sinai is a 2285 m-high mountain in Saint Katherine city, in Sinai region. It is next to Mount St. Catherine (at 2,629 m, the tallest peak on the Sinai peninsula). It is surrounded on all sides by higher peaks of the mountain range.

Geology

Mount Sinai's rocks were formed in the late stage of the Arabian-Nubian Shield's (ANS) evolution. Mount Sinai displays a ring complex that consists of alkaline granites intruded into diverse rock types, including volcanics. The granites range in composition from syenogranite to alkali feldspar granite. The volcanic rocks are alkaline to peralkaline and they are represented by subaerial flows and eruptions and subvolcanic porphyry. Generally, the nature of the exposed rocks in Mount Sinai indicates that they originated from different depths. (M. G. Shahien, Geol. Dept., Beni Suef, Egypt).

Monastery

The Monastery of St. Catherine in Saint Katherine city is sited nearby at an elevation of around 1550 m.

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A tepui (or tepuy) is a table-top mountain (mesa) found in the Guiana Highlands of South America, especially in Venezuela. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana. Tepuis tend to be found as isolated entities rather than in connected ranges, which makes them the host of a unique array of endemic plant and animal species. Some of the most outstanding tepuis are Autana, Auyantepui and Mount Roraima (the highest and most famous one, on the border tripoint of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana). They are typically composed of sheer blocks of Precambrian quartz arenite sandstone that rise abruptly from the jungle, giving rise to spectacular natural scenery. Auyantepui is the source of Angel Falls, the world's tallest waterfall.

Morphology

These table-top mountains are the remains of a large, sandstone plateau that once covered the granite basement complex between the north border of the Amazon Basin and the Orinoco, between the Atlantic coast and the Rio Negro. Throughout the course of the history of Earth, the plateau was eroded, and the tepuis were formed from the remaining monadnocks.

There are 115 such mesas in the Gran Sabana in the south-east of Venezuela on the border with Guyana and Brazil, where the highest concentration of tepuis is found. The precipitous mountains tower over the surrounding area by up to 1,000 meters. On top of the mountains grow various types of forests with a wide variety of orchids and bromeliads species.

Because of their great age, some tepuis exhibit surface features and subsurface caves that are typical of more water-soluble rock such as limestone. Caves here include the 671m deep Abismo Guy Collet, the deepest quartzite cave in the world. Some of the mesas are pocked with giant sinkholes up to 300 metres in diameter and with sheer walls up to 300 metres deep. These sinkholes are formed when the roofs of tunnels carved by underground rivers collapse.

Flora and fauna

The plateau of the tepuis is completely isolated from the ground forest, making them ecological islands. The altitude causes them to have a different climate from the ground forest. The top presents cool temperatures with frequent rainfall, while the bases of the mountains have a tropical, warm and humid climate. The isolation has led to the presence of endemic flora and fauna through evolution over millennia of a different world of animal and plants, cut off from the rest of the world by the imposing rock walls. Some tepui sinkholes contain species that have evolved in these "islands within islands" that are unique to that sinkhole. The tepuis are often referred to as the Galápagos Islands of the mainland, having a large number of unique plants and animals not found anywhere else in the world. The floors of the mesas are poor in nutrients, which has led to a rich variety of carnivorous plants. The weathered, craggy nature of the rocky ground means no layers of humus are formed.

The tepuis, also known as 'islands above the rainforest', are a challenge for researchers, as they are home to a high number of new species which have yet to be described. A few of these mountains are cloaked by thick clouds almost the whole year round. Their surfaces could previously only be photographed by helicopter radar equipment. Humans have still yet to set foot on many of the tepuis.

Many tepuis are in the Canaima National Park in Venezuela, which has been classified as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Selected tepuis

A few of the most notable of the 115 Tepuis:

*Auyantepui is the largest of the tepuis with a surface area of 700 km². Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world, drops from a cleft in the summit.

*Mount Roraima, also known as Roraima Tepui. A report by the noted South American researcher Robert Schomburgk inspired the Scottish author Arthur Conan Doyle to write his novel The Lost World about the discovery of a living prehistoric world full of dinosaurs and primeval plants. The borders of Venezuela, Brazil, and Guyana meet on the top.

*Matawi Tepui, also known as Kukenán, because it is the source of the Kukenán River, is considered the "place of the dead" by the local Pemon Indians. Located next to Mount Roraima in Venezuela.

*Autana Tepui stands 1,300 m above the forest floor. A unique cave runs from one side of the mountain to the other.

*Ptari Tepui's sheer rock walls are so isolated, it is believed a high number of endemic plant and animal species could be found there.

*Sarisariñama Tepui, famous for its almost perfectly circular sinkholes which go straight down from the mountain top - the largest such sinkhole is 350 meters in diameter and depth (purportedly created by groundwater erosion). They harbor an ecosystem composed of unique plant and animal species at the bottom.

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Mount Lindesay lies approximately 200 km south of Brisbane, Australia. It is one of a number of peaks in the McPherson Range.

The mountain is a multi-tiered peak similar to a wedding cake and is covered in thick dense rainforest. The summit is not the remains of an extinct volcano as its appearance might first suggest.

The park is dissected by the New South Wales-Queensland state border. The area is protected within Mount Barney National Park in Queensland and Border Ranges National Park in New South Wales. To get to the top requires some very steep rockclimbing.

The Mount Lindesay Highway passes close to Mount Lindesay.

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The Bunya Mountains are a distinctive set of peaks forming an isolated section of the Great Dividing Range in southern Queensland. The mountain range forms the northern edge of the Darling Downs near Bell and Dalby. The mountains are south of Kingaroy and just to the south west of Nanango. The Bunya Mountains are the remains of a shield volcano which was built from numerous basalt lava flows about 23-24 million years ago.

The range rises to an average elevation of 975 metres; however the two tallest mountains on the range, Mount Kiangarow and Mount Mowbullan, rise to about 1,100m. The mountains are covered with ancient conifer rainforest that co-exists with a number of other unique natural features - 'balds' (open grasslands), vine, and sclerophyll forests.

Parts of the forest were once logged for various timbers including red cedar, bunya pine and hoop pine. However, most of the peaks are completely uncleared and covered in forest as the range was too steep for early timber clearers.

Tourist attraction

Much of the area is protected as the Bunya Mountains National Park, the state's second oldest National Park, being established in 1908. There are many picnic spots, walking tracks, lookouts and a few camping grounds on the range, as well as a variety of cottage and group accommodation facilities for families, friends, and school camp groups. Along the walking tracks, which lead to lookouts that offer views of the surrounding countryside, flora such as ferns and staghorns, as well as the unique Bunya Pine, can be seen. Waterfalls add to the scenic beauty.

In the small patches of cleared land that are used by tourists, colourful birds such as King Parrots and Rosellas can be seen. Fauna such as Wallabies, Scrub Turkeys, Koalas, Echidnas and Possums may be seen. The unique Bunya Pine is known for its Bunya nuts which were a favoured food of local Aborigines.

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Mount Aragats (Armenian: Արագած) is a large andesitic-to-dacitic stratovolcano in NW Armenia about 40 km NW of the capital city of Yerevan. It is the highest point in Armenia, located in the province of Aragatsotn, northwest from Yerevan. Located on its slopes are the Byurakan Observatory and the medieval Amberd Fortress. The observatory is a historically significant facility responsible for a number of important photographic surveys. Mount Aragats is a popular destination for tourists, especially in summer.

The 4095-m-high main edifice of Aragats is dissected by glaciers and is of Pliocene-to-Pleistocene age. However, parasitic cones and fissures are located on all sides of the volcano and were the source of large lava flows that descended its lower flanks.

Several of these were considered to be of Holocene age, but later Potassium-Argon dating indicated mid- to late-Pleistocene ages. The youngest lower-flank flows have not been precisely dated, but are constrained as occurring between the end of the late-Pleistocene and 3000 BC (Kharakanian et al., 2003). A 13-km-long, WSW-ENE-trending line of craters and pyroclastic cones cuts across the northern crater rim and is the source of young lava flows and lahars; the latter were considered to be characteristic of Holocene summit eruptions.

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The Ruwenzori are some of Africa’s biggest block mountains. The mountain forms a border between Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), measuring about 120 km (75 miles) long and about 64 km (40 miles) wide. With the highest peak at 5,109 m (16,761 ft) high, the mountain has several jagged peaks that have made it an important geographical future in the region.

Mount Rwenzori was formed through faulting activities, which were also responsible for the formation of the Albertine (western) Rift of the East African Rift, which forms part of the Great Rift Valley. The mountains are composed of metamorphic rock, which is believed to have tilted and squeezed upwards during plate tectonic activity and continental drifting, leading to the present mountain. The Rwenzori forms part of several Great Rift Valley features such as lakes (grabens) Albert, George, Edward, Kivu Tanganyika and Malawi, mountains Muhavura and Kilimanjaro, and numerous rivers.

Historic significance

Little is known about when the first man claimed the mountains. However, one of the first Europeans to see mount Ruwenzori called them Lunae Montes (mountains of the moon), which were believed by the ancient Greeks to be the source of the Nile River. In 1906 the Italian Duke of Abruzzi became the first European to reach the peak of Mount Rwenzori. It is at this time that the first detailed map of the mountain was produced, which would later guide expeditions to the ranges.

Environmental significance of the Rwenzori

The mountain is one of the most fascinating natural features of Africa. The mountain lies virtually on the equator line, thus receiving sunshine throughout the year. Despite its location, the mountain is covered by snow throughout the year and is an important source of numerous rivers, including tributaries to Lake Victoria (the world’s second largest freshwater lake) and the Nile River (the world’s longest river).

The Ruwenzori has numerous fauna and flora. Its vegetation cover includes tropical rain forests, bamboos, and alpine meadows. The Ruwenzori’s animal population includes forest elephants, several species of antelopes, primates and birds. One zone is known for its six-meter-high heather covered in moss, another for its giant lobelia. The mountains are now a World Heritage Site protected under two national parks—the Rwenzori National Park in Uganda and Parc National des Virunga in Congo.

The mountain is home to numerous tribal communities of Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Among them are the hunter-gatherer Mbuti pygmies of eastern Congo, who entirely depend on hunting and gathering food from the forests. Subsistence farming is also practiced in the area and this, together with high population growth, are the major threats to the mountains fauna and flora, due to poor faming methods.

Environmental Threats to the mountain

Like much of the world, the Ruwenzori Mountains have been greatly affected by global warming. According to Green Peace the mountain's glaciers and snow cover are disappearing and breaking apart into smaller glacial pieces. “Glaciers of Africa” (1987) stated, “There has been substantial and virtually continuous wastage of the glacier ice for more than 100 years”. In 1906 photographs of Ruwenzori mountains showed one large, continuous glacier; in 1984 this was reduced to four broken glaciers. By 2005 less than half of the glaciers still existed covering only 1.5 km2 of the mountains. It is believed that the disappearance of the glaciers is responsible for the drying up of rivers and lakes. For example, in 2006 Lake Victoria dried to its lowest level in 80 years.

Other major threats to the mountain are poor farming methods employed by the communities living on the mountain slopes. The Ruwenzori has experienced significant soil erosion and numerous landslides due to poor farming methods.

Deforestation is another major problem facing the mountain ranges. Over 90% of the communities living on the mountain slopes depend on firewood for fuel, leading to extensive destruction of forests.

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The Tian Shan, also commonly spelled Tien Shan, is a mountain range located in Central Asia. The Chinese name for Tian Shan or Tien Shan, may in turn go back to a Xiongnu name, qilian reported by the Shiji as the homeland of the Yuezhi, which has been argued to refer to the Tian Shan rather than to the range 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) further the east now known by this name. A nearby mountain range, the Tannu-Ola Mountains , also bears a synonymous name ("heaven/celestial mountains" or "god/spirit mountains").

Geography

The range lies to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains. It also extends into the Chinese province of Xinjiang and into the northern areas of Pakistan, where it joins the Hindu Kush.

In Western cartography, the eastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to be just west of Ürümqi, while the range to the east of that city is known as the Bogda Shan. However, in Chinese cartography, from the Han Dynasty to the present, the Tian Shan is also considered to include the Bogda Shan and Barkol ranges.

The Tian Shan are a part of the Himalayan orogenic belt which was formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates in the Cenozoic era. They are one of the longest mountain ranges in Central Asia, stretching some 2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) eastward from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

The highest peak in the Tian Shan is the Victory Peak (пик Победы in Russian or Jengish Chokusu in Kyrgyz) which, at 7,439 metres (24,406 ft), is also the highest point in Kyrgyzstan and is on the border with China. The Tian Shan's second highest peak, Khan Tengri (Lord of the Spirits), at 7,010 metres (23,000 ft), straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border, and is the highest point of Kazakhstan. Mountaineers class these as the two most northerly peaks over 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) in the world.

The Torugart Pass, 3,752 metres (12,310 ft) high, is located at the border between Kyrgyzstan and China's Xinjiang province. The forested Alatau ranges, which are at a lower altitude in the northern part of the Tian Shan, are inhabited by pastoral tribes speaking Turkic languages. The major rivers rising in the Tian Shan are the Syr Darya, the Ili river and the Tarim River. The Aksu Canyon is a notable feature in the northwestern Tian Shan.

One of the first Europeans to visit and the first to describe the Tian Shan in detail was the Russian explorer Peter Semenov in the 1850s.

Ecology

The Tian Shan holds important forests of Schrenk's Spruce (Picea schrenkiana) at altitudes of over 2,000 metres (6,600 ft); the lower slopes have unique natural forests of wild Walnuts and Apples.

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Mount Tongariro is a volcanic complex in the North Island of New Zealand. It is located 20 kilometres to the southwest of Lake Taupo, and is the northernmost of the three active volcanoes that dominate the landscape of the central North Island.

The volcanic massif, often simply referred to as Tongariro, has a height of 1,978 metres. It first erupted about 260,000 years ago. The volcano consists of at least 12 cones; Ngauruhoe, while often regarded as a separate mountain, is geologically a vent of Tongariro. It is also the most active, having erupted more than 70 times since 1839, although the last eruption took place in 1974-1975. Activity has also been recorded at other vents. Red Crater last erupted ash in 1926 and contains active fumaroles. There are many explosion craters on the massif; water has filled some of these to form the Blue Lake and the Emerald Lakes.

Mount Tongariro is in the Tongariro National Park, New Zealand's first national park and one of the earliest in the world. It given to the nation in 1887 by Te Heuheu Tukino IV (Horonuku), paramount chief of the Māori Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi in order to preserve its natural beauty. The park also includes the peaks of Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, both of which lie to the southwest of Tongariro. The national park is a dual World Heritage Area for its outstanding natural and intangible cultural values.

The popular hiking route called Tongariro Alpine Crossing passes between Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.

Mount Tongariro and its surroundings are also one of the several locations which Peter Jackson chose to shoot the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

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Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa, and is featured in the flag of Cape Town and other local government insignia. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. The mountain forms part of the Table Mountain National Park.

Features

The main feature of Table Mountain is a level plateau approximately 3 kilometres (2 mi) from side to side, surrounded by steep cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town and its Table Bay harbour, and together with Signal Hill form the natural amphitheatre of the City Bowl.

The highest point on Table Mountain is towards the eastern end of the plateau and is marked by Maclear's Beacon, a stone cairn built in 1865 by Sir Thomas Maclear for trigonometrical survey. It is 1,086 metres (3,563 ft) above sea level, about 19 metres (62 ft) higher than the cable station at the western end of the plateau.

The cliffs of the main plateau are split by Platteklip Gorge ("Flat Stone Gorge"), which provides an easy and direct ascent to the summit and was the route taken by Antonio de Saldanha on the first recorded ascent of the mountain in 1503.

The flat top of the mountain is often covered by clouds/mist/fog spilling over the top to form the "table cloth".

Table Mountain is at the northern end of a sandstone mountain range that forms the spine of the Cape Peninsula. To the south of the main plateau is a lower part of the range called the Back Table. On the Atlantic coast of the peninsula, the range is known as the Twelve Apostles. The range continues southwards to Cape Point.

Geology

The upper part of the mountain mesa consists of Ordovician quartzitic sandstone, commonly referred to as Table Mountain Sandstone (TMS), which is highly resistant to erosion and forms characteristic steep grey crags. Below the sandstone is a layer of micaceous basal shale, which weathers quite readily and is therefore not readily visible. The basement consists of heavily folded and altered late precambrian Malmesbury shale, which has been intruded by Cape Granite. The basement rocks are not nearly as resistant to weathering as the TMS but significant outcrops of the Cape Granite are visible on the western side of Lion's Head.

Flora

The main vegetation of the mountain is the unique and rich Cape fynbos, which forms part of the Cape Floral Region protected areas. These protected areas are a World Heritage Site, and an estimated 2,200 species of plants are found on the mountain alone. Amongst these species are many kinds of proteas. Remnant patches of indigenous forest persist in a few of the wetter ravines but not on the more exposed face above the city, where conditions are too dry and harsh for forests. The mountain has also suffered serious invasions of alien plants for well over a century, with perhaps the worst invader being the cluster pine. Considerable efforts have been made to eliminate these alien plants.

Fauna

The most common animal on the mountain is the dassie, or rock hyrax. They especially cluster around the upper cable station, near areas where tourists may discard or (illegally) supply food. There are also porcupines, mongooses, snakes and tortoises. The last lion in the area was shot circa 1802. Leopards persisted on the mountain until perhaps the 1920s but are now extinct locally. Two smaller, secretive, nocturnal carnivores, the rooikat (caracal) and the vaalboskat (also called the vaalkat or African Wild Cat) were once common on the mountain. The rooikat continues to be seen on rare occasions by mountaineers but the status of the vaalboskat is uncertain.

Himalayan tahrs, fugitive descendants of tahrs that escaped from Groote Schuur zoo in 1936, used to be common on the less accessible upper parts of the mountain. As an exotic species, they were almost eradicated through a culling programme initiated by the South African National Parks to make way for the reintroduction of indigenous klipspringers. Until recently there were also small numbers of fallow deer of European origin and sambar deer from southeast Asia. These were mainly in the Rhodes Memorial area but during the 1960s they could be found as far afield as Signal Hill. The animals may by now have been eliminated or relocated.

History

The original name given to the mountain by the first Khoi inhabitants was Hoeri 'kwaggo ("sea mountain").

Prehistoric people first left evidence here more than 600,000 years ago. Evidence tools of these Early Stone Age hunter-gatherers were found in a depression near the Cape of Good Hope. The Middle Stone Age inhabitants (dating from 200,000 to 40,000 years ago) also left evidence of their life on the Peninsula. Fossils from around 8000 BC indicate that by that period the inhabitants of the region had developed bows and arrows which they used to hunt.

San (or Bushmen) hunter-gatherers relied on the seashore for most of their food. This resulted in the Dutch naming, Strandlopers (beach combers). About 2000 years ago the Khoikhoi migrated from the north, displacing the San, bringing with them their herds of cattle and sheep. It was the Khoikhoi who were the dominant tribe when the Europeans sailed into Table Bay.

Antonio de Saldanha was the first European to land in Table Bay. He climbed the mighty mountain in 1503 and named it 'Table Mountain'. The great cross that the Portuguese navigator carved in the rock of Lion's Head is still traceable.

Between 1896 and 1907, five dams, the Woodhead, Hely-Hutchinson, De Villiers, Alexandria and Victoria reservoirs, were opened on the Back Table to supply Cape Town's water needs. A ropeway ascending from Camps Bay via Kasteelspoort ravine was used to ferry materials and manpower. There is a well-preserved steam locomotive from this period housed in the Waterworks Museum at the top of the mountain near the Hely-Hutchinson dam. It had been used to haul materials for the dam across the flat top of the mountain. Cape Town's water requirements have since far outpaced the capacity of the dams and they are no longer an important part of the water supply.

The mountain became part of the new Cape Peninsula National Park in the 1990s. The park was renamed to the Table Mountain National Park in 1998.

Fires are common on the mountain. The most recent major fire came in January 2006, destroying large amounts of vegetation and resulting in the death of a tourist. A charge of arson and culpable homicide was laid against a British man who was suspected of starting the blaze.

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Mont-aux-Sources is a mountain range in Africa, forming one of the highest portions of the Drakensberg. A sheer wall of 1,000 vertical ft., known as the Sentinel, can be found here. A basalt plateau which lies at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,050 m), it is mostly within Lesotho.

Mont-Aux Sources was so named by the French missionaries who visited the region in 1836. The highest point itself is an uninteresting peak 7 km from the Drakensberg escarpment and attains an altitude of 3,282 m. The mountain is the source for three major rivers, (hence the name Mont-aux-Sources), the Tugela falls, Vaal River and Orange River. The Orange River flows into the Atlantic Ocean on the West coast of Southern Africa, whilst the Tugela flows into the Indian Ocean on the East coast of the subcontinent. 7 km from the source, the Tugela plunges 947 m in a series of falls in the Royal Natal Drakensberg Park. This is the second highest series of falls in the world.

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Mount Everest, also called Sagarmatha (Head of the Sky) or Chomolungma, Qomolangma or Zhumulangma is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height of its summit above sea level, which is 8,848 metres (29,029 ft). The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Sagarmatha Zone, Nepal, and Tibet, China.

In 1856, the Great Trigonometric Survey of India established the first published height of Everest at 29,002 ft (8,840 m), although at the time Everest was known as Peak XV. In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon recommendation of Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India at the time. Waugh was unable to propose an established local name because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners at the time, although Chomolungma had been in common use by Tibetans for centuries.

The highest mountain in the world attracts climbers of all levels, from well experienced mountaineers to novice climbers willing to pay substantial sums to professional mountain guides to complete a successful climb. The mountain, while not posing substantial technical climbing difficulty on the standard route (other eight-thousanders such as K2 or Nanga Parbat are much more difficult), still has many inherent dangers such as altitude sickness, weather and wind. By the end of the 2007 climbing season, there had been 3,679 ascents to the summit by 2,436 individuals. Climbers are a significant source of tourist revenue for Nepal, whose government also requires all prospective climbers to obtain an expensive permit, costing up to US$25,000 per person. Everest has claimed 210 lives, including eight who perished during a 1996 storm high on the mountain. Conditions are so difficult in the death zone that most corpses have been left where they fell, some of which are visible from standard climbing routes.

The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma or Qomolangma (which means "Saint Mother"), and the Chinese transliteration is Zhumùlangma Feng, which refers to Earth Mother; the Chinese translation is Shèngmu Feng, which refers to Holy Mother. According to English accounts of the mid-19th century, the local name in Darjeeling for Mount Everest was Deodungha, or "Holy Mountain".

Everest is the mountain whose summit attains the greatest distance above sea level. Several other mountains are sometimes claimed as alternative "tallest mountains on Earth". Mauna Kea in Hawaii is tallest when measured from its base; it rises over 10,200 m (6.3 mi) when measured from its base on the mid-ocean floor, but only attains 4,205 m (13,796 ft) above sea level.

By the same measure of base to summit, Mount McKinley, in Alaska, is also taller than Everest. Despite its height above sea level of only 6,193.6 m (20,320 ft), Mount McKinley sits atop a sloping plain with elevations from 300-900 m (1,000-3,000 ft), yielding a height above base in the range of 5,300-5,900 m (17,300-19,300 ft); a commonly quoted figure is 5,600 m (18,400 ft). By comparison, reasonable base elevations for Everest range from 4,200 m (13,800 ft) on the south side to 5,200 m (17,100 ft) on the Tibetan Plateau, yielding a height above base in the range of 3,650 m (12,000 ft) to 4,650 m (15,300 ft).

The summit of Chimborazo in Ecuador is 2,168 m (7,113 ft) farther from the Earth's centre (6,384.4 km or 3,967.1 mi) than that of Everest (6,382.3 km or 3,965.8 mi), because the Earth bulges at the Equator. However, Chimborazo attains a height of only 6,267 m (20,561 ft) above sea level, and by this criterion it is not even the highest peak of the Andes.

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