The highest mountain in the world is Mount Everest, which reaches 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft) on the Nepal–China border, followed by K2 at 8,611 m on the line between Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and China and Kangchenjunga at 8,586 m on the Nepal–India border. Every one of the world's 20 highest mountains stands in the Himalaya or the Karakoram of Asia, and the first 14 of them are the only mountains on Earth above 8,000 m, the so-called eight-thousanders. The ranking below follows Wikipedia's list of highest mountains on Earth, which counts a summit as a separate mountain only if it rises at least 500 m above the highest saddle linking it to a taller peak and uses the 8,848.86 m height that China and Nepal agreed for Everest in 2020.
How the top 20 is counted: the 500-metre prominence rule
Without a rule, the list would fill up with shoulders of bigger mountains. Nuptse (7,864 m) and Gasherbrum III (7,946 m) are both higher than several peaks below, but they rise only 305 m and 355 m above their connecting ridges, so they are treated as satellites of Lhotse and Gasherbrum II rather than mountains in their own right. The same logic explains why Lhotse makes the top five at all: it is the least prominent of the eight-thousanders, standing only 610 m above the South Col that joins it to Everest.
Heights are less exact than the decimal points suggest. Wikipedia notes that thorough modern measurements of Everest alone range from 8,840 m to 8,849 m, and that some peaks differ by more than 100 m between maps. Cho Oyu, for example, was first measured at about 8,150 m, which made it seventh behind Dhaulagiri; a 1984 estimate of 8,201 m moved it up to sixth, and a 1996 survey by Nepal's Survey Department and the Finnish Meteorological Institute later settled on 8,188 m.
| Rank | Mountain | Height | Range | Country | First ascent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Everest | 8,849 m | Mahalangur Himalaya | Nepal, China | 1953 |
| 2 | K2 | 8,611 m | Baltoro Karakoram | Pakistan, China | 1954 |
| 3 | Kangchenjunga | 8,586 m | Kangchenjunga Himalaya | Nepal, India | 1955 |
| 4 | Lhotse | 8,516 m | Mahalangur Himalaya | China, Nepal | 1956 |
| 5 | Makalu | 8,485 m | Mahalangur Himalaya | Nepal, China | 1955 |
| 6 | Cho Oyu | 8,188 m | Mahalangur Himalaya | China, Nepal | 1954 |
| 7 | Dhaulagiri I | 8,167 m | Dhaulagiri Himalaya | Nepal | 1960 |
| 8 | Manaslu | 8,163 m | Manaslu Himalaya | Nepal | 1956 |
| 9 | Nanga Parbat | 8,126 m | Nanga Parbat Himalaya | Pakistan (Gilgit-Baltistan) | 1953 |
| 10 | Annapurna I | 8,091 m | Annapurna Himalaya | Nepal | 1950 |
| 11 | Gasherbrum I | 8,080 m | Baltoro Karakoram | Pakistan, China | 1958 |
| 12 | Broad Peak | 8,051 m | Baltoro Karakoram | Pakistan, China | 1957 |
| 13 | Gasherbrum II | 8,035 m | Baltoro Karakoram | Pakistan, China | 1956 |
| 14 | Shishapangma | 8,027 m | Jugal Himalaya | China | 1964 |
| 15 | Gyachung Kang | 7,952 m | Mahalangur Himalaya | Nepal, China | 1964 |
| 16 | Annapurna II | 7,937 m | Annapurna Himalaya | Nepal | 1960 |
| 17 | Gasherbrum IV | 7,932 m | Baltoro Karakoram | Pakistan | 1958 |
| 18 | Himalchuli | 7,893 m | Manaslu Himalaya | Nepal | 1960 |
| 19 | Distaghil Sar | 7,884 m | Hispar Karakoram | Pakistan | 1960 |
| 20 | Ngadi Chuli | 7,871 m | Manaslu Himalaya | Nepal | 1979 |
Ranks 11 to 20 show how tightly packed the giants are. Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II cluster in the Baltoro Muztagh of the Karakoram, and Shishapangma, the 14th and last eight-thousander, is the only one entirely inside China. It was also the last to be climbed, in 1964. Below 8,000 m the list keeps returning to the same massifs: Himalchuli and Ngadi Chuli belong to the Manaslu group, Annapurna II to the Annapurna range.
Nos. 10 to 8: Annapurna I, Nanga Parbat and Manaslu
10. Annapurna I, 8,091 m (26,545 ft), Nepal. The lowest of the top ten was the first eight-thousander anyone climbed. Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal of the French expedition reached the summit on 3 June 1950, three years before Everest. Its reputation since has been grim: for decades it had the highest death rate of the principal eight-thousanders, and as of February 2025, 559 people had reached the top while 75 had died trying. The name comes from the Hindu goddess of food and nourishment, from Sanskrit anna (food) and purna (filled). The whole massif sits inside the 7,629 km² Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal's first and largest.
9. Nanga Parbat, 8,126 m (26,660 ft), Gilgit-Baltistan. The western anchor of the Himalaya lies just south of the great bend of the Indus, in the Pakistan-administered region of Gilgit-Baltistan. Its height above its surroundings is extreme: the Rupal Face on the south rises about 4,600 m, and the Rakhiot Flank climbs about 7,000 m from the Indus valley in just 25 km. The Austrian Hermann Buhl made the first ascent on 3 July 1953, climbing the last 1,300 m alone and without oxygen.
8. Manaslu, 8,163 m (26,781 ft), Nepal. Rising in the Gorkha District of west-central Nepal, Manaslu takes its name from the Sanskrit manasa, meaning intellect or soul, usually rendered as "mountain of the spirit". Toshio Imanishi and Gyalzen Norbu of a Japanese expedition reached the summit on 9 May 1956. The 177 km Manaslu Circuit trek around its base, opened to trekkers only in 1991, follows an old salt-trading route along the Budhi Gandaki river and crosses the Larkya La at 5,106 m.
Nos. 7 to 5: Dhaulagiri I, Cho Oyu and Makalu
7. Dhaulagiri I, 8,167 m (26,795 ft), Nepal. The highest mountain standing wholly inside one country is only four metres taller than Manaslu. For thirty years after 1808 surveyors believed it was the highest summit yet measured. It rises about 7,000 m above the Kali Gandaki river, 30 km away, and the gorge between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, 34 km to the east, is described as the world's deepest. A Swiss-Austrian-Nepali team made the first ascent on 13 May 1960, making Dhaulagiri the last of Nepal's eight-thousanders to be climbed. The name joins Sanskrit dhawala (dazzling white) and giri (mountain).
6. Cho Oyu, 8,188 m (26,864 ft), China–Nepal. "Turquoise Goddess" in Tibetan, Cho Oyu stands 20 km west of Everest next to the Nangpa La, a 5,716 m glacier pass long used by Tibetan and Sherpa traders. Its gentle north-west ridge makes it widely considered the easiest 8,000 m peak. Herbert Tichy, Joseph Jöchler and Pasang Dawa Lama of an Austrian team made the first ascent on 19 October 1954.
5. Makalu, 8,485 m (27,838 ft), China–Nepal. Nineteen kilometres south-east of Everest, Makalu is an isolated four-sided pyramid. Lionel Terray and Jean Couzy of Jean Franco's French expedition reached the top on 15 May 1955, and seven more team members followed over the next two days, at a time when most expeditions put only one or two people on a summit.
No. 4 and No. 3: Lhotse and Kangchenjunga
4. Lhotse, 8,516 m (27,940 ft), China–Nepal. The name means "South Peak" in Tibetan, and that is what it is: Everest's neighbour across the South Col, forming the apex of the horseshoe-shaped Everest massif, with Everest to the north and Nuptse to the west. Climbers bound for Everest from Nepal cross its western flank, the Lhotse Face, a 1,125 m wall of blue ice set at 40 to 50 degrees. The Swiss climbers Ernst Reiss and Fritz Luchsinger made the first ascent on 18 May 1956.
3. Kangchenjunga, 8,586 m (28,169 ft), Nepal–India. Until 1852 Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain on Earth. Calculations by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 showed that Peak XV, later named Everest, was higher, and after years of rechecking the result was announced in 1856. The mountain straddles the border between Nepal's Koshi Province and the Indian state of Sikkim, and it is sacred in both. Joe Brown and George Band of the British expedition reached the top on 25 May 1955 but stopped just short of the true summit, keeping a promise to the Chogyal of Sikkim that it would remain untouched. The Indian side remains closed to climbers, and the adjoining Khangchendzonga National Park became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016.
No. 2: K2 and the Baltoro Karakoram
2. K2, 8,611 m (28,251 ft), Pakistan–China. The second-highest mountain is not in the Himalaya at all but in the Karakoram, straddling Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan and the China-administered Trans-Karakoram Tract in Xinjiang. Its name is a surveyor's label: Thomas Montgomerie of the Great Trigonometrical Survey sketched the two most prominent Karakoram peaks from Mount Haramukh, about 210 km to the south, and marked them K1 and K2. K1 turned out to have a local name, Masherbrum; K2 appeared to have none, possibly because it is so remote.
K2 is harder and deadlier than Everest. Its more northerly position brings worse weather, and its faces are steep and exposed. Italians Lino Lacedelli and Achille Compagnoni reached the summit in 1954 on Ardito Desio's expedition. Before 2021, roughly one climber died for every four who summited; by August 2023 about 800 people had reached the top and 96 had died attempting it. In January 2021 a team of ten Nepali climbers led by Nirmal Purja and Mingma Gyalje Sherpa made the first winter ascent, the last eight-thousander to be climbed in winter. The two mountains are compared side by side in our Everest vs K2 comparison.
No. 1: Mount Everest at 8,848.86 metres
1. Mount Everest, 8,848.86 m (29,032 ft), Nepal–China. The current height was agreed by China and Nepal after a joint survey announced on 8 December 2020. In Nepali the mountain is Sagarmāthā; in Tibetan, Chomolungma. The British name dates from the 1850s, when Andrew Waugh, Surveyor General of India, announced Peak XV at 8,840 m and proposed naming it after his predecessor, Sir George Everest, arguing that no single local name could be chosen.
Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa climber from Nepal, reached the summit at 11:30 am on 29 May 1953 by the South Col route. The mountain is still rising by about 2 mm a year, pushed up along the collision zone between the Indian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. As of May 2024, 340 people had died on Everest, and more than 200 bodies remain on its slopes. The summit rock is limestone and dolomite that formed on an ancient sea floor, the same rock found on top of Dhaulagiri.
Everest's lead is real but not vast: it is 238 m higher than K2, while the gap between the 5th and 10th mountains is under 400 m. Measured from base to summit, though, the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea is taller, rising about 10,203 m from the Pacific floor, and the highest peak outside Asia, Aconcagua (6,962 m), ranks only 189th. For how each continent's highest point compares, see our guide to the highest mountains by continent, or read the full story of the first eight-thousander in our Annapurna mountain guide.