Mount Everest, Himalayas
Mount Everest was formed as a result of the collision of the Indian continent into the Asian continent which began some 20 million years ago and continues today.
Mount Everest was part of an ancient seabed; today it is possible to find the fossils of marine creatures at its peak that were preserved hundreds of millions of years ago.
Everest was first made known to the wider world in 1852 during a British survey of India that first established its status as the world’s highest mountain.
At 8,848m above sea level, Everest is the highest mountain in the world; in fact, the Himalayas are home to nine of the 10 highest mountains on Earth.
Mount Everest was first successfully summited by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay as part of the 1953 British Mount Everest Expedition.
Since Hillary and Norgay’s first successful ascent in 1953, Everest has been summited more than 5,100 times by some 3,000 people.