File:Himalayas_and_allied_ranges_NASA_Landsat_showing_the_eight_thousanders,_annotated_with_major_rivers.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Himalayas

Also known as Himalaya, Himalayan Mountains, Himalaya Mountains, Himmaleh, the Himalayas, Himálaya, Snowy Mountains, Himálaya Mountains

The Himalayas, or Himalaya, is a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 peaks exceeding elevations of above sea level lie in the Himalayas.

OverviewAI-generated

The Himalayas are a mountain range located in Asia. They are part of the Alpide belt and originated during the Eocene time period. The range has a length of 2400 and a width of 250, covering an area of 600000. Its highest point is Mount Everest, which has an elevation above sea level of 8848.86. The range is situated in Nepal, Myanmar, China, and Pakistan.

The subject is maintained by WikiProject Nepal, WikiProject Bhutan, WikiProject India, and WikiProject Mountains. It appears on the Wikipedia:List of articles all languages should have and Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4 focus lists. The Himalayas are described by sources including Nordisk familjebok, Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, The Nuttall Encyclopædia, and Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition. Additionally, the topic is referenced by 6,830 other encyclopedia articles.

Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, PubMed, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Key facts

Mountain.photo_caption: The arc of the Himalayas (also Hindu Kush and Karakorams) showing the eight-thousanders (in red); Indo-Gangetic Plain; Tibetan Plateau; rivers Indus, Ganges, and Yarlung Tsangpo-Brahmaputra; and the two anchors of the range (in yellow)
Mountain.country_type: Countries
Mountain.subdivision2_type: Continent
Mountain.subdivision2: Asia
Mountain.highest: Mount Everest
Mountain.elevation_m: 8848.86
Mountain.highest_location: Nepal, China
Mountain.length_km: 2400
Mountain.age: Cretaceous to Cenozoic
Mountain.orogeny: Alpine orogeny
Mountain.map_image: Himalaya annotated.jpg
Mountain.map_caption: Mount Everest and surrounding peaks as seen from the north-northwest over the Tibetan Plateau. Four eight-thousanders can be seen, Makalu (8,462 m), Everest (8,848 m), Cho Oyu (8,201 m), and Lhotse (8,516 m).
Mountain.name: The Himalayas
Mountain.photo: Himalayas and allied ranges NASA Landsat showing the eight thousanders, annotated with major rivers.jpg

via Wikipedia infobox

Research

4,825 papers

Microplastic pollution in the Himalayas: Occurrence, distribution, accumulation and environmental impacts.ReviewThe Science of the total environment · 2023Talukdar A, Bhattacharya S, Bandyopadhyay A et al.DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162495
Systematic Review of Multi-Dimensional Vulnerabilities in the Himalayas.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Sultan H, Zhan J, Rashid W et al.DOI: 10.3390/ijerph191912177
Exploring potentialities of avian genomic research in Nepalese Himalayas.ReviewAvian research · 2021Ghimire P, Dahal N, Karna AK et al.DOI: 10.1186/s40657-021-00290-5
Plant endemism in the Nepal Himalayas and phytogeographical implications.ReviewPlant diversity · 2019Tiwari A, Uprety Y, Rana SKDOI: 10.1016/j.pld.2019.04.004
The Nairobi fly in the Himalayas.Journal of travel medicine · 2022Dorji T, Lhendup K, Gyeltshen KDOI: 10.1093/jtm/taac097
Monitoring climate change vulnerability in the Himalayas.Ambio · 2025Malik IH, Ford JDDOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02066-9
Review on essential oils, chemical composition, extraction, and utilization of some conifers in Northwestern Himalayas.ReviewPhytotherapy research : PTR · 2020Bhardwaj K, Islam MT, Jayasena V et al.DOI: 10.1002/ptr.6736
Himalayas is barrier for transportation of light-absorbing particles from South Asia to inner Third Pole.Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987) · 2024Li C, Zhang C, Chen PDOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124181

via PubMed

~41 min read

Encyclopedic overview

27 sections

Contents

Etymology
Geography and key features
Geology
Hydrology
Glaciers
Lakes
Climate
Temperature
Precipitation
Winds
Ecology
Religions
Resources
See also
Notes
References
Sources
General
Geography
Geology
Climate
Ecology
Society
Pilgrimage and Tourism
Mountaineering and Trekking
Further reading
External links

The Himalayas span five countries: Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, and Pakistan. The sovereignty of the range in the Kashmir region is disputed among India, Pakistan, and China. The Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo–Brahmaputra, rise in the vicinity of the Himalayas, and their combined drainage basin is home to some 600 million people; 53 million people live in the Himalayas. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia and Tibet. Many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. The summits of several—Kangchenjunga (from the Indian side), Gangkhar Puensum, Machapuchare, Nanda Devi, and Kailash in the Tibetan Transhimalaya—are off-limits to climbers.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Himalayas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.