Status: December 8, 2020 1:02 pm

The highest mountain in the world has gotten a little higher: exactly 8,848.86 meters. China and Nepal have jointly measured and agreed on a uniform height specification.

By Steffen Wurzel, ARD-Studio Shanghai

8,848 meters and 86 centimeters – As of today, that’s the official height of Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. It is found in the Himalayas on the border between Nepal and China and is actually called quite differently in the region: “Cho mo lung ma” in Tibetan, “Zhu mu lang ma” in standard Chinese, and “Sagar matha” in Nepali. .

Years of dispute over the exact height.

China and Nepal have not agreed on the exact amount in recent decades. It was all a frankly political argument. China always said that the height of Mount Everest was a few meters lower than that of the Nepalese side.

After years of disputes, experts from China and Nepal have worked together for the first time and agreed on the issue. Among other things, they used GPS and BeiDou satellite navigation systems, as well as a traditional angle measurement device method: With protractors, the researchers calculated the exact height above sea level using traditional trigonometry.

Difficult calculations

First, it was necessary to clarify which seas would be used as a base. The Nepalese side opted for the Bay of Bengal, the sea between India and Myanmar. The Chinese research team took the Yellow Sea as a reference point, that is, the maritime zone between China and South Korea.

It is currently not possible to climb Mount Everest due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Chinese high-altitude research team was the only team on the world’s highest peak in May.



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