With its summit at 8,848.86 m (29,031 ft 8 in) above sea level, Everest (aka Sagarmāthā or Chomolungma) is the highest mountain on Earth. In 2020, a joint initiative by Chinese and Nepalese land surveyors announced that Everest’s height had grown from the 8,848 m (29,029 ft) elevation that had been logged by the Survey of India in 1954. The relatively young Himalayan mountains are still on the rise because the collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which formed the range, is still ongoing.
Straddling the border of Nepal and Tibet Autonomous Region, China, an eastern Himalayan peak known as “Peak XV” was declared to be the world’s highest mountain in 1856 by the Survey Department of the Government of India. Its height was assessed to be 8,840 m (29,002 ft) based on theodolite readings taken in 1849 and 1850.
It was named Mount Everest after Colonel Sir George Everest (1790–1866), formerly Surveyor-General of India (1830–43), who pronounced his name "Eve-rest", and who never actually saw the mountain. Its local names include Sagarmāthā (Nepali) and Chomolungma (Tibetan), which roughly translate as “Goddess of the Sky” and “Goddess Mother of the World”, respectively.
By contrast, the tallest mountain on Earth (measured from base to peak) is Mauna Kea (“White Mountain”) on the island of Hawaii, USA, at approximately 10,205 m (33,480 ft) from seabed to summit; more than half of Mauna Kea lies underwater.
The first people to reach the summit of Everest were Edmund Percival Hillary (New Zealand) and Tenzing Norgay (b. Namgyal Wangdi) of India/Tibet, China, at 11:30 a.m. on 29 May 1953.