What is the name of the highest mountain on Venus?

The highest mountain on Venus is Maxwell Montes, a vast mountain range rising about 11 kilometres above the planet’s average surface level.

Maxwell Montes lies in Ishtar Terra, one of Venus’s two major highland regions, near the elevated plateau Lakshmi Planum. Its highest areas are also among the coolest and least pressurised places on Venus, although conditions remain extraordinarily extreme compared with Earth.

Scientists mapped the range using radar because Venus is permanently hidden beneath thick clouds. Observations from the Arecibo radar and the Pioneer Venus mission helped establish the region’s elevation, while NASA’s Magellan spacecraft later produced much more detailed topographic maps.

The name honours physicist James Clerk Maxwell, whose work on electromagnetism made radar technology possible. A common mix-up is Maat Mons, a prominent Venusian volcano, or Skadi Mons, a former label associated with a supposed peak. Maxwell Montes is the canonical answer because it contains Venus’s highest known topographic point.