File number: 07NEP-5002

Mount Everest (upper left; 29,035 feet / 8850 meters elevation, based on a 1999 GPS measurement), the highest mountain on Earth, was first called Chomolungma or Qomolangma ("Goddess Mother of the Earth" in Tibetan). In 1865, Andrew Waugh, the British surveyor-general of India named the mountain for his chief and predecessor, Colonel Sir George Everest. In the 1960s, the Government of Nepal named the mountain Sagarmatha, meaning "Goddess of the Sky". The mountain, which is part of the Himalaya range in High Asia, is located on the border between Nepal and Tibet, China. On the right is Ama Dablam.