Everest, Mount

Everest, Mount, peak, 29,035 ft (8,850 m) high, on the border of Tibet and Nepal, in the central Himalayas. It is the highest elevation in the world. Called Chomolungma or Qomolangma [Mother Goddess of the Land] by Tibetans and Sagarmatha [head of the sea] by Nepalis, it is named in English for the surveyor Sir George Everest. It was first climbed on May 28, 1953, when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal reached the summit. The body of George H. L. Mallory, who died in an earlier attempt (1924), was found on the mountain in 1999.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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