Mount Everest’s official height is 8,848.86 metres above sea level. Nepal and China announced this jointly surveyed height in 2020, replacing the previously accepted figure of 8,848 metres.
Everest is part of the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas, on the border between Nepal and Tibet, China. Its summit is covered by snow and ice, whose thickness can vary, so surveys measure the elevation of the summit surface using modern geodetic methods.
The mountain is called Sagarmatha in Nepal and Chomolungma in Tibet. The English name honors George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India, although he never saw the mountain. A common mix-up is confusing Everest’s elevation with its prominence or with the distance from its oceanic base; those are different measurements.