What is the world’s highest mountain above sea level?

Mount Everest is the world’s highest mountain above sea level.

Its officially recognized elevation is 8,848.86 metres, based on a 2020 measurement by China and Nepal. The mountain stands in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and Tibet, an autonomous region of China. Nepal commonly calls it Sagarmatha, while Tibetans call it Chomolungma.

The mountain was named in the nineteenth century after George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India. Everest was first successfully climbed on 29 May 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. They approached from Nepal, following a route through the Khumbu Icefall and South Col.

K2 is the world’s second-highest mountain, not the highest. Mauna Kea can rise higher when measured from its underwater base, but Everest holds the standard record because mountain heights are conventionally compared from sea level.