List of highest mountains

Mount Everest, the highest mountain on earth.

The following is a list of the world's 100+ highest mountains per height above sea level, all of which are located in Asia. Only those summits are included that, by an objective measure, may be considered individual mountains as opposed to subsidiary peaks.

Considerations

The dividing line between a mountain with multiple peaks and separate mountains is not always clear (see also Highest unclimbed mountain). A popular and intuitive way to distinguish mountains from subsidiary peaks is by their height above the highest saddle connecting it to a higher summit, a measure called topographic prominence or re-ascent (the higher summit is called the "parent peak"). A common definition of a mountain is a summit with 300 m prominence (1,000 ft; also 10 traditional rope lengths). Alternatively, a relative prominence (prominence/height) is used (usually 7-8%) to reflect that in higher mountain ranges everything is on a larger scale. The table below lists the highest 100 summits with at least 500 m prominence, approximating a 7% relative prominence. A drawback of a prominence-based list is that it may exclude well-known or spectacular mountains that happen to be connected via a high ridge to a taller summit, like the Eiger or Nuptse. A few such peaks and mountains with nearly sufficient prominence are included but not numbered in the list.

It is very unlikely that all given heights are correct to the nearest metre; indeed, the sea level is often problematic to define when a mountain is remote from the sea. Different sources often differ by many metres, and the heights given below may well differ from those elsewhere in Wikipedia. As an extreme example, Ulugh Muztagh on the north Tibetan Plateau is often listed as 7,723-7,754 m, but appears to be only 6,973-6,987 m. Many mountains in the Karakoram differ by >100 m on different maps, while even very thorough current measurements of Mount Everest range from 8,844 to 8,850 m. These discrepancies serve to emphasise the uncertainties in the listed heights.

Though some parts of the world, especially the most mountainous parts, have never been thoroughly mapped, it is unlikely that any mountains this high have been overlooked, also because satellites can be used to measure altitudes of otherwise inaccessible places. Still, heights and/or prominences may be revised, so that the order of the list may change and even "new" mountains could enter the list over time. To be safe, the list has been extended to include all 7,200 m+ peaks.

By convention, mountains are ranked by their height above sea level. An alternative would be to compare the height above the surrounding land plateau, in which case the world's tallest mountains could include mountain islands as they rise from the sea bed. Mauna Kea - rising about 10,200 meters (33,500 feet) from the Pacific Floor, is the world's tallest mountain island.

Geographical distribution

Most mountains in the list are located in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges. In fact, all 7,000 m peaks in the world are located in Central Asia, in a rectangle edged by Noshaq (7,492 m) on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the West, Peak Jengish Chokusu, Tomur Feng) (7,439 m) on the Kyrgyzstan - Xinjiang border to the North, Gongga Shan (Minya Konka) (7,556 m) in Sichuan to the East, and Kabru (7,412 m) on the Sikkim - Nepal border to the South.

The locations of the highest mountains are shown on the composite satellite image of High Asia below. The numbers refer to the ranking in the list. For clarity, lower peaks with labels overlapping higher peaks are left out of the main image. The boxed regions are those with the highest density of summits and are enlarged in two separate images to show all peaks.

Location of peaks in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram

Location of peaks in the Nepal Himalaya

The list