The highest mountain in the world: Everest

Fossilized fish remains have been found on the snowy slopes of Mount Everest. This is evidence that once, millions of years ago, the world’s highest mountain was deep in the sea. How Everest crossed half of the world and rose 2/3 of the way into the atmosphere is one of the fascinating stories that accompany the adventure of this extraordinary mountain.

Approximately 200 million years ago, the Indian subcontinent broke away from the supercontinent called Gondwanaland in the south. It drifted northeast in the sea and collided with the Asian continental mass. Like two cars that collided head-on and twisted, the two huge continental masses twisted, folded and rose to form the world’s most magnificent mountains. Mount Everest, which is 8848 meters, is one of them.

The names given to the mountain by the Tibetans are variously translated as ‘Goddess of the Mountain Snows’, ‘Goddess of the Earth’, and ‘Mountain So High That No Bird Can Fly Over It’. First measured in 1852, the mountain was called Peak 15 until 1865, when it was named after the British Director of the Survey of India, Sir George Everest. A fearless and meticulous military engineer, George Everest was instrumental in creating the first accurate map of India and the Himalayas.