Which Venezuelan range contains Pico Bolivar, the country's highest mountain?

The Venezuelan range containing Pico Bolívar is the Mérida Andes, also called the Cordillera de Mérida. Pico Bolívar is Venezuela’s highest mountain and rises in the range’s Sierra Nevada de Mérida sector.

The Cordillera de Mérida is a northeastern extension of the Andes. It stretches roughly 400 kilometers through western Venezuela, including Mérida, Táchira, Trujillo and neighboring states. The city of Mérida sits near the range’s center, between the subsidiary Sierra Nevada de Mérida and Sierra de la Culata.

Pico Bolívar reaches about 4,978 meters (16,332 feet). Older surveys listed heights above 5,000 meters, but GPS measurements in the 1990s and early 2000s produced the modern figure. The peak was officially renamed for independence leader Simón Bolívar in 1934; it had previously been known as La Columna.

A common mix-up is treating Sierra Nevada de Mérida, the immediate subrange, as a separate answer from the larger Mérida Andes. Both names describe the mountain setting at different geographic scales.