Puncak Jaya, the highest peak between the Himalayas and the Andes, is in Indonesia’s Sudirman Range.
Puncak Jaya rises to 4,884 metres in the western half of New Guinea, in Indonesia’s Papua region. It is also called Carstensz Pyramid, while Puncak Jaya means “glorious peak” in Indonesian. The mountain is the highest point in Oceania under several commonly used continental classifications.
The Sudirman Range forms part of the Maoke Mountains, which run across the central highlands of Papua. The region is geologically unusual because high limestone and rock summits rise near the equator, where tropical lowland conditions dominate nearby areas.
Puncak Jaya once supported small glaciers, but those ice bodies have dramatically retreated. The mountain’s location is sometimes described simply as the Maoke Mountains, but the more specific range containing the summit is the Sudirman Range.