Which mountain is the highest above sea level, at 8,848.86 metres?

Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, with an official height of 8,848.86 metres. It stands in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China.

Nepal calls the mountain Sagarmatha, while Tibetans call it Chomolungma. The English name honors George Everest, a 19th-century Surveyor General of India, although Everest himself did not name the mountain. The peak formed as the Indian Plate pushed into the Eurasian Plate, a collision that continues to raise the Himalayas.

Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal made the first confirmed ascent on 29 May 1953. The route remains dangerous because of extreme cold, thin air, avalanches, and crowded climbing seasons.

K2 is the world's second-highest mountain, at 8,611 metres. Everest is highest above sea level, but Mauna Kea is taller when measured from its submarine base to its summit.