The Himalayas, or Himalaya (/ˌhɪməˈleɪ.

ə, hɪˈmɑːləjə/; Sanskrit: [ɦɪmaːlɐjɐ];

from Sanskrit himá 'snow, frost', and ā-laya 'dwelling, abode'),[3] is a mountain range in Asia,
separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some
of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest; more than 100
peaks exceeding elevations of 7,200 m (23,600 ft) above sea level lie in the Himalayas.

The Himalayas abut or cross five countries: Nepal, China, Pakistan, Bhutan and India. The
sovereignty of the range in the Kashmir region is disputed among India, Pakistan, and China.
[4]
The Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges,
on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the
world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo–Brahmaputra, rise in the vicinity of
the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to some 600 million people; 53 million
people live in the Himalayas.[5] The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South
Asia and Tibet. Many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. The summits of
several—Kangchenjunga (from the Indian side), Gangkhar Puensum, Machapuchare, Nanda
Devi, and Kailash in the Tibetan Transhimalaya—are off-limits to climbers.

Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayan
mountain range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 km (1,500 mi) long.[6] Its
western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of the Indus river. Its
eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, lies immediately west of the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo
River. The range varies in width from 350 km (220 mi) in the west to 150 km (93 mi) in the east.[7]

Name[edit]
The name of the range hails from the Sanskrit Himālaya (हिमालय 'abode of the snow'[8]),
from himá (हिम 'snow'[9]) and ā-laya (आलय 'home, dwelling'[10]).[11][12] They are now known as "the
Himalaya Mountains", usually shortened to "the Himalayas".

The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi (both
written हिमालय), Himāl (हिमाल) in Kumaoni, the Himalaya (ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡ་) or 'The Land of Snow' (གངས་ཅན་ལྗོངས་)
in Tibetan, also known as Himālaya in Sinhala (written as හිමාලය), the Himāliya Mountain
Range (‫ )سلسلہ کوہ ہمالیہ‬in Urdu, the Himaloy Parvatmala (হিমালয় পর্বতমালা) in Bengali, and
the Ximalaya Mountain Range (simplified Chinese: 喜马拉雅山脉; traditional Chinese: 喜馬拉雅
山脉; pinyin: Xǐmǎlāyǎ Shānmài) in Chinese.

The name of the range is sometimes also given as Himavan in older writings, including the
Sanskrit epic Mahabharata.[13] Himavat (Sanskrit: हिमवत्) or Himavan Himavān (Sanskrit:
हिमवान्) is a Hindu deity who is the personification of the Himalayan Mountain Range. Other
epithets include Himaraja (Sanskrit: हिमराज, lit. 'king of snow') or Parvateshwara (Sanskrit:
पर्वतेश्वर, lit. 'lord of mountains').

In western literature, some writers refer to it as the Himalaya. This was also previously
transcribed as Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinson's poetry[14] and Henry David Thoreau's essays.[15]

Geography and key features[edit]

See also: List of Himalayan peaks and passes
 Map of the Himalayas (including the Hindu Kush)
The Himalayas consist of parallel mountain ranges: the Sivalik Hills on the south; the Lower
Himalayan Range; the Great Himalayas, which is the highest and central range; and the Tibetan
Himalayas on the north.[16] The Karakoram are generally considered separate from the
Himalayas.

In the middle of the great curve of the Himalayan mountains lie the 8,000 m (26,000 ft) peaks
of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna in Nepal, separated by the Kali Gandaki Gorge. The gorge splits
the Himalayas into Western and Eastern sections, both ecologically and orographically – the
pass at the head of the Kali Gandaki, the Kora La, is the lowest point on the ridgeline between
Everest and K2 (the highest peak of the Karakoram range). To the east of Annapurna are the
8,000 m (5.0 mi) peaks of Manaslu and across the border in Tibet, Shishapangma. To the south
of these lies Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal and the largest city in the Himalayas. East of
the Kathmandu Valley lies the valley of the Bhote/Sun Kosi river which rises in Tibet and
provides the main overland route between Nepal and China – the Araniko Highway/China
National Highway 318. Further east is the Mahalangur Himal with four of the world's six highest
mountains, including the highest: Cho Oyu, Everest, Lhotse, and Makalu. The Khumbu region,
popular for trekking, is found here on the south-western approaches to Everest. The Arun
river drains the northern slopes of these mountains, before turning south and flowing to the range
to the east of Makalu.

In the far east of Nepal, the Himalayas rise to the Kangchenjunga massif on the border with
India, the third-highest mountain in the world, the most easterly 8,000 m (26,000 ft) summit and
the highest point of India. The eastern side of Kangchenjunga is in the Indian state of Sikkim.
Formerly an independent Kingdom, it lies on the main route from India to Lhasa, Tibet, which
passes over the Nathu La pass into Tibet. East of Sikkim lies the ancient Buddhist Kingdom
of Bhutan. The highest mountain in Bhutan is Gangkhar Puensum, which is also a strong
candidate for the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The Himalayas here are becoming
increasingly rugged, with heavily forested steep valleys. The Himalayas continue, turning slightly
northeast, through the Indian State of Arunachal Pradesh as well as Tibet, before reaching their
easterly conclusion in the peak of Namche Barwa, situated in Tibet, inside the great bend of
the Yarlang Tsangpo river. On the other side of the Tsangpo, to the east, are the Kangri
Garpo mountains. The high mountains to the north of the Tsangpo, including Gyala Peri,
however, are also sometimes included in the Himalayas.

Going west from Dhaulagiri, Western Nepal is somewhat remote and lacks major high
mountains, but is home to Rara Lake, the largest lake in Nepal. The Karnali River rises in Tibet
but cuts through the centre of the region. Further west, the border with India follows the Sarda
River and provides a trade route into China, where on the Tibetan plateau lies the high peak
of Gurla Mandhata. Just across Lake Manasarovar from this lies the sacred Mount Kailash in
the Kailash Ranges, which stands close to the source of the four main rivers of Himalayas and is
revered in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Sufism and Bonpo. In Uttarakhand, the Himalayas are
regionally divided into the Kumaon and Garhwal Himalayas with the high peaks of Nanda
Devi and Kamet.[17] The state is also home to the important pilgrimage destinations of Chaar
Dhaam, with Gangotri, the source of the holy river Ganges, Yamunotri, the source of the
river Yamuna, and the temples at Badrinath and Kedarnath.
The next Himalayan Indian state, Himachal Pradesh, is noted for its hill stations,
particularly Shimla, the summer capital of the British Raj, and Dharamsala, the centre of the
Tibetan community and government in exile in India. This area marks the start of the Punjab
Himalaya and the Sutlej river, the most easterly of the five tributaries of the Indus, cuts through
the range here. Further west, the Himalayas form much of the disputed Indian-administered
union territory of Jammu and Kashmir where lie the mountainous Jammu region and the
renowned Kashmir Valley with the town and lakes of Srinagar. The Himalayas form most of the
south-west portion of the disputed Indian-administered union territory of Ladakh. The twin peaks
of Nun Kun are the only mountains over 7,000 m (4.3 mi) in this part of the Himalayas. Finally,
the Himalayas reach their western end in the dramatic 8000 m peak of Nanga Parbat, which
rises over 8,000 m (26,000 ft) above the Indus valley and is the most westerly of the 8000 m
summits. The western end terminates at a magnificent point near Nanga Parbat where the
Himalayas intersect with the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, in the disputed Pakistani-
administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan. Some portion of the Himalayas, such as the Kaghan
Valley, Margalla Hills, and Galyat tract, extend into the Pakistani provinces of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

Geology[edit]
Main article: Geology of the Himalaya

The 6,000-kilometre-plus (3,700 mi) journey of the India landmass

(Indian Plate) before its collision with Asia (Eurasian Plate) about 40 to 50 million years
ago[18]

The Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consists mostly
of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock. According to the modern theory of plate tectonics,
its formation is a result of a continental collision or orogeny along the convergent boundary (Main
Himalayan Thrust) between the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The Arakan
Yoma highlands in Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal were
also formed as a result of this collision[19].

During the Upper Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago, the north-moving Indo-Australian Plate
(which has subsequently broken into the Indian Plate and the Australian Plate[20]) was moving at
about 15 cm (5.9 in) per year. About 50 million years ago this fast-moving Indo-Australian Plate
had completely closed the Tethys Ocean, the existence of which has been determined
by sedimentary rocks settled on the ocean floor and the volcanoes that fringed its edges. Since
both plates were composed of low density continental crust, they were thrust
faulted and folded into mountain ranges rather than subducting into the mantle along an oceanic
trench.[18] An often-cited fact used to illustrate this process is that the summit of Mount Everest is
made of unmetamorphosed marine Ordovician limestone with fossil trilobites, crinoids,
and ostracods from this ancient ocean.[21]

Today, the Indian plate continues to be driven horizontally at the Tibetan Plateau, which forces
the plateau to continue to move upwards.[22] The Indian plate is still moving at 67 mm (2.6 in) per
year, and over the next 10 million years, it will travel about 1,500 km (930 mi) into Asia. About
20 mm per year of the India-Asia convergence is absorbed by thrusting along the Himalaya
southern front. This leads to the Himalayas rising by about 5 mm per year, making them
geologically active. The movement of the Indian plate into the Asian plate also makes this
region seismically active, leading to earthquakes from time to time.[citation needed]

During the last ice age, there was a connected ice stream of glaciers between Kangchenjunga in
the east and Nanga Parbat in the west.[23][24] In the west, the glaciers joined with the ice stream
network in the Karakoram, and in the north, they joined with the former Tibetan inland ice. To the
south, outflow glaciers came to an end below an elevation of 1,000–2,000 m (3,300–6,600 ft).[23]
[25]
While the current valley glaciers of the Himalaya reach at most 20 to 32 km (12 to 20 mi) in
length, several of the main valley glaciers were 60 to 112 km (37 to 70 mi) long during the ice
age.[23] The glacier snowline (the altitude where accumulation and ablation of a glacier are
balanced) was about 1,400–1,660 m (4,590–5,450 ft) lower than it is today. Thus, the climate
was at least 7.0 to 8.3 °C (12.6 to 14.9 °F) colder than it is today.[26]