Question

Give a brief description of the Himalayan mountains

Answer 1

The Himalaya Mountains span some 2500 kilometers/1565 miles through northern India, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. Nine of the world’s ten highest peaks are located here, including Mt. Everest. The word Himalaya means “abode of snow” in Sanskrit. Many of Asia’s most important rivers have their sources in the Himalaya Mountains including the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra. The Himalaya contain the world’s 3rd largest deposit of ice and snow on the planet. Only the Antarctic and Arctic have more. Altogether, the Himalaya is home to around 15,000 glaciers.

Probably the most popular reason people go to Tibet and Nepal is to see the world’s highest and most spectacular mountain range. No trip to Tibet or Nepal is complete without seeing the Himalayas, particularly Mt. Everest. There is something about looking out to the world’s highest peaks that just can’t be described.it needs to be experienced! A misconception is that Everest or other peaks of the Himalaya’s are just right outside of Lhasa or Kathmandu and that is not true.

Having lived on the Tibetan Plateau for the past 14+ years, I have been fortunate enough to travel through large portions of the Himalaya in Tibet, Bhutan, India and Nepal. This post will highlight some of my favorite views of the Himalayas as well as information on how to visit.

The most characteristic features of the Himalayas are their soaring heights, steep-sided jagged peaks, valley and alpine glaciers often of stupendous size, topography deeply cut by erosion, seemingly unfathomable river gorges, complex geologic structure, and series of elevational belts (or zones) that display different ecological associations of flora, fauna, and climate. Viewed from the south, the Himalayas appear as a gigantic crescent with the main axis rising above the snow line, where snowfields, alpine glaciers, and avalanches all feed lower-valley glaciers that in turn constitute the sources of most of the Himalayan rivers. The greater part of the Himalayas, however, lies below the snow line. The mountain-building process that created the range is still active. As the bedrock is lifted, considerable stream erosion and gigantic landslides occur.