Mount Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, with a modern official height of 8,848.86 meters.
Everest stands in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. In Nepal it is called Sagarmatha, while in Tibet it is known as Qomolangma. The mountain formed as the Indian tectonic plate pushed into the Eurasian plate, a collision that continues to raise the Himalayas gradually.
The mountain was known as Peak XV during British surveys before being named Mount Everest in 1865 after George Everest, a former Surveyor General of India. New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay made the first confirmed successful ascent on 29 May 1953.
Everest is the highest point above sea level, but it is not Earth’s tallest mountain measured from base to summit. Mauna Kea in Hawaii extends farther from its underwater base, and Chimborazo’s summit is farthest from Earth’s center because of the planet’s equatorial bulge.