Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, rising 8,848.86 metres in the Himalayas.
Everest stands on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. Its Nepali name is Sagarmatha, while the Tibetan name is Chomolungma. The mountain was named in English after George Everest, a nineteenth-century Surveyor General of India, although he did not personally visit the peak.
Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first confirmed ascent on 29 May 1953. Modern surveys use satellite positioning and other techniques to refine the elevation; Nepal and China announced the 8,848.86-metre figure in 2020.
Everest is not the tallest mountain by every possible measurement. Mauna Kea rises higher from its underwater base, while Chimborazo’s summit is farthest from Earth’s center because of the planet’s equatorial bulge. The standard geographic comparison uses elevation above sea level.