Highest mountains
The 14 eight-thousanders, the highest peak of each continent and other summits above 4,000 m, with their height and country or region.
31 cards · Geography
Each Zap teaches up to 5 new cards, so you learn the deck a few at a time.
Checked by the Brain Zap team · reviewed 8 Oct 2026
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Mount Everest
Show answerHide answer: Mount Everest
8,848.86 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: Measured at 8,848.86 m by a joint survey in 2020. First climbed in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary.
K2
Show answerHide answer: K2
8,611 m, Pakistan/China
Learn more: Named K2 as the second peak listed in an 1856 survey of the Karakoram. First climbed in 1954 by an Italian team.
Kangchenjunga
Show answerHide answer: Kangchenjunga
8,586 m, Nepal/India
Learn more: Its name means 'five treasures of the snow', for its five summits. It was thought the highest on Earth until 1852.
Lhotse
Show answerHide answer: Lhotse
8,516 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: Lhotse means 'south peak' in Tibetan: the South Col links it to Everest. First climbed in 1956 by a Swiss team.
Makalu
Show answerHide answer: Makalu
8,485 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: An isolated peak about 19 km southeast of Everest, known for its pyramid shape. First climbed in 1955 by a French team.
About this topic
The highest mountains on Earth are young by geological standards. The fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres all stand in the Himalaya and Karakoram, pushed up as the Indian plate keeps driving into Asia, and they still rise by a few millimetres a year.
Each card pairs a summit with its height and the country or border it stands on, which together give you a map of the world's great ranges: the Himalaya, the Andes, the Alps, the Caucasus, Alaska and the volcanoes of East Africa.
Heights change as surveys improve, so the figures here are the commonly accepted ones. One trick makes them easier to learn: anchor on Everest at 8,849 metres, then learn every other peak as a gap below it, and remember that the highest summits of the other continents, the Seven Summits, all sit between about 4,800 and 7,000 metres.
All 31 cards
Mount Everest
8,848.86 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: Measured at 8,848.86 m by a joint survey in 2020. First climbed in 1953 by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary.
K2
8,611 m, Pakistan/China
Learn more: Named K2 as the second peak listed in an 1856 survey of the Karakoram. First climbed in 1954 by an Italian team.
Kangchenjunga
8,586 m, Nepal/India
Learn more: Its name means 'five treasures of the snow', for its five summits. It was thought the highest on Earth until 1852.
Lhotse
8,516 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: Lhotse means 'south peak' in Tibetan: the South Col links it to Everest. First climbed in 1956 by a Swiss team.
Makalu
8,485 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: An isolated peak about 19 km southeast of Everest, known for its pyramid shape. First climbed in 1955 by a French team.
Cho Oyu
8,188 m, Nepal/China
Learn more: Its name is said to mean 'turquoise goddess' in Tibetan. First climbed in 1954 by an Austrian team.
Dhaulagiri I
8,167 m, Nepal
Learn more: Dhaulagiri comes from Sanskrit for 'dazzling white mountain'. First climbed in 1960, above the Kali Gandaki gorge.
Manaslu
8,163 m, Nepal
Learn more: Its name comes from Sanskrit manasa, 'intellect' or 'soul'. Japanese climbers first reached the top in 1956.
Nanga Parbat
8,126 m, Pakistan
Learn more: Its name means 'naked mountain'. Hermann Buhl reached the top alone in 1953; its Rupal Face is among the tallest walls.
Annapurna I
8,091 m, Nepal
Learn more: Maurice Herzog and Louis Lachenal reached the top in 1950, the first ascent of any 8,000 m peak.
Gasherbrum I
8,080 m, Pakistan/China
Learn more: Called Hidden Peak because it is hard to see from the valleys around it. First climbed in 1958 by an American team.
Broad Peak
8,051 m, Pakistan/China
Learn more: Named for its wide summit ridge, over 1.5 km long. An Austrian team first climbed it in 1957, without bottled oxygen.
Gasherbrum II
8,035 m, Pakistan/China
Learn more: Gasherbrum may mean 'shining wall' in Balti. First climbed in 1956 by an Austrian team.
Shishapangma
8,027 m, China
Learn more: The only eight-thousander wholly in Tibet, and the last of the 14 to be climbed, by a Chinese team in 1964.
Aconcagua
6,961 m, Argentina
Learn more: The highest peak of the Americas and of the Southern Hemisphere. Its normal route needs no technical climbing.
Denali
6,190 m, United States
Learn more: Its Koyukon name means 'the high one'. It rises about 5,500 m from base to top, more than Everest does.
Kilimanjaro
5,895 m, Tanzania
Learn more: The world's highest free-standing mountain, a dormant volcano. Hikers reach its top, Uhuru Peak, without ropes.
Elbrus
5,642 m, Russia
Learn more: A dormant volcano with two summits; the western one is higher. Many count it, not Mont Blanc, as Europe's highest.
Vinson Massif
4,892 m, Antarctica
Learn more: In the Ellsworth Mountains, first climbed in 1966 by an American team. It is one of the Seven Summits.
Puncak Jaya
4,884 m, Indonesia
Learn more: Also called Carstensz Pyramid, it is the highest point of Oceania by some counts. First climbed in 1962.
Mont Blanc
4,806 m, France/Italy
Learn more: Its name means 'white mountain'. Its height shifts a little each year with its ice cap; first climbed in 1786.
Ojos del Salado
6,893 m, Argentina/Chile
Learn more: Its name means 'eyes of the salty one', after salt lakes nearby. It stands at the edge of the Atacama Desert.
Huascarán
6,768 m, Peru
Learn more: In 1970 an earthquake set off an avalanche from its north face that buried the town of Yungay below.
Chimborazo
6,263 m, Ecuador
Learn more: Earth bulges at the equator, so this volcano's summit is about 2 km farther from Earth's centre than Everest's.
Mount Logan
5,959 m, Canada
Learn more: Second highest in North America after Denali, with one of the largest bases of any mountain. Named after geologist William Logan.
Pico de Orizaba
5,636 m, Mexico
Learn more: Also called Citlaltépetl, 'star mountain' in Nahuatl. Its snowy cone last erupted in the 1840s.
Mount Kenya
5,199 m, Kenya
Learn more: An extinct volcano just south of the equator; the country is named after it. Its highest summit is Batian.
Mount Ararat
5,137 m, Turkey
Learn more: A dormant volcano near the borders of Armenia and Iran. Genesis places the Ark's landing on the mountains of Ararat.
Matterhorn
4,478 m, Switzerland/Italy
Learn more: First climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper's party; four of them died on the way down. It inspired the Toblerone logo.
Mount Whitney
4,421 m, United States
Learn more: The top of the contiguous US, in the Sierra Nevada. Death Valley, North America's lowest point, lies under 140 km away.
Mount Rainier
4,392 m, United States
Learn more: An active volcano with more glacier ice than any other peak in the contiguous US; its mudflows threaten towns below.
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