where the earth meets the sky
Mount Everest, the highest peak in the Himalayas and the highest point on Earth, has many names.
Tibetans call it Chomolungma, meaning ‘Mother Goddess of the World’ and the Nepalese call it
Sagarmatha, meaning ‘Goddess of the Sky’. Others call it the ‘Roof of the World’. In English the
mountain is named after a Welsh geographer Sir George Everest, who lived between 1790-1866. George
Everest was a scientist and a researcher, who for many years and despite numerous hardships, carried out
geographical research about India and Nepal and drew maps of these territories.
The great Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world, extend 2,400 kilometres along four
countries of Asia: China, India, Nepal and Pakistan. Mount Everest, which is on the border of Tibet and
Nepal, is 8,848 metres high, almost twice as high as Mount Elbrus which, at 5,642 metres, is the highest
point in the Caucasus Mountains and in Europe.
Everest, with its inspiring power and beauty, has always attracted courageous adventurers and climbers.
George Mallory, a British climber, was the first to explore a practical route up the mountain in 1921.
Later, in 1924, Mallory and his climbing partner Andrew Irvine disappeared during their attempt to make
the first climb up Everest. It was only after 75 years, in 1999, that Mallory’s body was finally discovered
by an expedition that had set out to search for the climbers’ bodies. Whether or not Mallory and Irvine
reached the summit of Everest before they died is still unknown and this is a subject of debate and
continuing research.
Such unlucky histories never frightened brave climbers, among whom Sir Edmund Hillary, a New
Zealander, and Tenzing Norgay from Nepal, were the luckiest. We say the luckiest, because they were the
first to reach the summit of Everest in 1953. Since then more than two thousand and five hundred men and
women have stood there. More than two hundred have died in attempts to make it to the top. They were all
brave people who were not afraid of cold, hunger and death. In 1980 a famous climber Rein Hold Mesner
reached the summit alone without oxygen. Before that, in 1963, Barry Bishop, from National Geographic,
climbed Everest as a member of the First American Expedition. Each of these expeditions established new
routes and produced better maps, thus making things easier for the next generations.
Nepal is both lucky and unlucky to have Everest on its territory. Lucky, because they have the ‘Roof
of the World’ and unlucky because this ‘Roof of the World’ attracts too many tourists. The Nepalese
people joke: ‘We have three religions - Hinduism, Buddhism and Tourism. Tourism lays golden eggs but
it spoils the nest’. The Nepalese realize that the Himalaya is much, much more than the highest point. It is
true dazzling beauty and people have to take care of it.
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