The highest mountain in Asia, and on Earth, is Mount Everest, whose summit on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China was measured at 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) by a joint Nepalese and Chinese survey in 2020. It stands in the Mahalangur Himal section of the Himalaya and was first climbed on 29 May 1953 by Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay. Asia holds every one of the world's 14 "eight-thousanders", the peaks above 8,000 m recognised by the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA), and every mountain on Earth higher than 7,000 m, so its top ten is also the world's top ten.
| Rank | Mountain | Range | Country | Height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Everest | Himalaya | Nepal / China | 8,849 m |
| 2 | K2 | Karakoram | Pakistan-administered Kashmir / China | 8,611 m |
| 3 | Kangchenjunga | Himalaya | Nepal / India | 8,586 m |
| 4 | Lhotse | Himalaya | Nepal / China | 8,516 m |
| 5 | Makalu | Himalaya | Nepal / China | 8,485 m |
| 6 | Cho Oyu | Himalaya | Nepal / China | 8,188 m |
| 7 | Dhaulagiri I | Himalaya | Nepal | 8,167 m |
| 8 | Manaslu | Himalaya | Nepal | 8,163 m |
| 9 | Nanga Parbat | Himalaya | Pakistan-administered Kashmir | 8,126 m |
| 10 | Annapurna I | Himalaya | Nepal | 8,091 m |
Heights follow Wikipedia's "List of highest mountains on Earth", which separates mountains from subsidiary peaks by topographic prominence and warns that sources often differ by several metres. The list contains at least 108 mountains of 7,200 m or more, all in a rectangle bounded by Noshaq on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border in the west, Jengish Chokusu on the Kyrgyzstan–China border in the north, Gongga Shan in Sichuan in the east and Kabru on the Sikkim–Nepal border in the south. Reading that rectangle range by range shows how each part of Asia's high country has its own leader.
The Himalaya: Everest and nine more eight-thousanders
The Himalaya hold ten of the 14 eight-thousanders: Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri I, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat, Annapurna I and Shishapangma (8,027 m). Everest's height has been revised several times. In 1856 Andrew Waugh of the Great Trigonometrical Survey announced "Peak XV" at 8,840 m, using calculations in which the Bengali mathematician Radhanath Sikdar had first identified it as the world's highest peak in 1852. The Survey of India's 1952–54 triangulation and a Chinese measurement in 1975 gave about 8,848 m, the figure Nepal and China officially recognised; a Chinese survey in 2005 gave 8,844.43 m for the rock summit beneath the snow; and the 2020 joint survey settled on 8,848.86 m. Two main routes lead to the top, the standard southeast route from Nepal and the north route from China. Neither is highly technical, but altitude, weather, avalanches and the Khumbu Icefall had killed 340 people by May 2024.
The rest of the range stretches the top ten across borders. Kangchenjunga (8,586 m) lies between Nepal's Koshi Province and India's Sikkim state. Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyu share Everest's Nepal–China frontier, while Dhaulagiri I (8,167 m) is the highest mountain lying wholly within one country, Nepal. Nanga Parbat (8,126 m), beside the northernmost bend of the Indus in Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, is the western anchor of the whole range. Annapurna I (8,091 m) was the first eight-thousander climbed, by Maurice Herzog's French expedition in 1950, and Shishapangma the last, in 1964.
The eastern Himalaya are less crowded at the top but hold the range's great unclimbed summit. Gangkhar Puensum (7,570 m), on the border between Bhutan and Tibet, is Bhutan's highest mountain and the highest unclimbed mountain in the world: expeditions failed in 1985 and 1986, and in 1994 Bhutan banned climbing on peaks above 6,000 m. Farther east in Tibet, Namcha Barwa (7,782 m) is the eastern anchor of the Himalaya where the range is defined as running from the Indus to the Brahmaputra.
The Karakoram: K2 and the Baltoro giants
The Karakoram, north and west of the Himalaya, holds the other four eight-thousanders, all on the Baltoro Muztagh: K2 (8,611 m), Gasherbrum I (8,080 m), Broad Peak (8,051 m) and Gasherbrum II (8,035 m). K2 lies partly in Gilgit-Baltistan, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and partly in the China-administered Trans-Karakoram Tract in Xinjiang. Its first ascent came on 31 July 1954, when Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni of Ardito Desio's Italian expedition reached the top via the Abruzzi Spur.
K2 is lower than Everest but far harder. Before 2021 roughly one climber died for every four who reached the summit; by August 2023 about 800 people had summited and 96 had died attempting it. It was the last eight-thousander climbed in winter, in January 2021, by ten Nepali climbers led by Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa. Below the eight-thousanders the range continues with Distaghil Sar (7,884 m), Khunyang Chhish (7,823 m) and Masherbrum (7,821 m), also known as K1, the first peak the 19th-century surveyors numbered in the series that gave K2 its name.
The Hindu Kush: Tirich Mir above Chitral
West of the Karakoram the Hindu Kush runs into Afghanistan. Its highest peak is Tirich Mir (7,708 m), in the Chitral District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, the 33rd-highest mountain in the world and the highest outside the Himalaya–Karakoram system. It can be seen from the main bazaar of Chitral town. The Tirich Glacier at its foot is ringed by three 7,000 m peaks: Tirich Mir, Noshaq and Istor-o-Nal. Noshaq (7,492 m), on the Afghanistan–Pakistan border, is Afghanistan's highest point and marks the western edge of the world's 7,000 m peaks.
The Pamirs: Kongur Tagh and Ismoil Somoni Peak
North of the Karakoram, the Pamirs have two leaders depending on where the range is drawn. Kongur Tagh (7,649 m), "brown mountain" in Turkic languages, is the highest peak of the eastern Pamirs and the highest mountain wholly within Xinjiang, China. It was hidden from European explorers until 1900 and first climbed in 1981 by a British expedition of Chris Bonington, Alan Rouse, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker; today it can be seen from Karakul Lake. In Tajikistan, Ismoil Somoni Peak (7,495 m) was the highest point of the Soviet Union. It was named Stalin Peak in 1933 and Communism Peak in 1962, and received its present name, after the Samanid ruler Ismail Samani, in 1998.
The Tian Shan: Jengish Chokusu on the Kyrgyzstan–China border
Farther north, the Tian Shan reaches its highest point at Jengish Chokusu (7,439 m) on the border between Kyrgyzstan's Issyk-Kul Region and Wensu County in Xinjiang. Its Kyrgyz name and its Russian name, Pik Pobedy, both mean "Victory Peak"; on the Chinese side it is Tomur, from the Uyghur word for "iron". It is the 16th most prominent peak on Earth and marks the northern edge of the world's 7,000 m peaks. Khan Tengri (7,010 m), 16 km to the northeast, shares its base camps on the South Engilchek Glacier.
Sichuan's Hengduan ranges: Gongga Shan's revised height
The eastern corner of the rectangle is Mount Gongga, or Minya Konka, the highest mountain in Sichuan, nicknamed "the King of Sichuan Mountains". Long listed at 7,556 m, it was surveyed by China's Ministry of Natural Resources in November 2023 at 7,509 m. It is the easternmost and most isolated 7,000 m peak in the world, and it rises about 6,400 m above the Dadu River valley 29 km to the east, one of the largest elevation differences on Earth. The old figure came from the 1972 Chinese national topographic map, based on a 1966 aerial survey with no measurement on the ground. Americans Terris Moore and Richard Burdsall made the first ascent in 1932, and five major glaciers flow from the massif, the longest being the 14.2 km Hailuogou, which holds China's largest icefall.
West Asia and the Caucasus: Damavand, Ararat and the Elbrus question
West of Afghanistan the heights fall sharply. Mount Damavand (5,610 m), a dormant stratovolcano in Iran's Alborz range 66 km northeast of Tehran, is the highest peak in Iran and Western Asia and the highest volcano in Asia. Mount Ararat (5,137 m), in easternmost Turkey, is the highest point of Turkey and the Armenian Highlands; its first recorded ascent was in 1829.
Then there is Mount Elbrus (5,642 m) in Russia's Kabardino-Balkaria republic, usually counted as Europe's highest mountain. Wikipedia's Caucasus Mountains article notes "technical disagreements" because the crest of the Greater Caucasus is often taken as the Europe–Asia boundary, which puts Elbrus close to the dividing line; the common versions of the Seven Summits, the highest peaks of each continent, list it for Europe.
Southeast Asia and the islands: Hkakabo Razi, Kinabalu and Fuji
Southeast Asia's highest mountain is believed to be Hkakabo Razi (5,881 m) in Myanmar's Kachin State near the India–China tripoint, though nearby Gamlang Razi (5,870 m) has challenged it. On the islands, Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, was re-surveyed by satellite in 1997 at 4,095 m, six metres lower than the earlier figure. Mount Kerinci (3,805 m), an active volcano, is the highest mountain in Sumatra, and Mount Fuji (3,776 m), last active in 1707 to 1708, is the highest point in Japan and a World Heritage Site since 2013.
The distances between these leaders tell the story of Asia's relief: about 5,070 m separates Everest from Fuji. For more on the two ranges that dominate the list, see our Himalayas guide and the Karakoram range guide; Everest's own measurements are covered in how tall Mount Everest is.