The Himalayas
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)
Highest point
Peak	Mount Everest, Nepal, China
Elevation	8,848.86 m (29,031.7 ft)
Coordinates	27°59′N 86°55′E / 27.983°N 86.917°E / 27.983; 86.917
Dimensions
Length	2,400 km (1,500 mi)
Geography
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).
Countries	Bhutan China India Nepal Pakistan Afghanistan [a]
Continent	Asia
Geology
Orogeny	Alpine orogeny
Rock age	Cretaceous to Cenozoic
Rock types	Metamorphic sedimentary

The Himalayas,^[b] or Himalaya,^[c] 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 7,200 m (23,600 ft) above sea level lie in the Himalayas.

The Himalayas abut on or cross territories of six countries: Nepal, India, China, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The sovereignty of the range in the Kashmir region is disputed among India, Pakistan, and China.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.

The Himalayas were uplifted after the collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian plate, specifically, by the folding, or nappe-formation of the uppermost Indian crust, even as a lower layer continued to push on into Tibet and add thickness to its plateau; the still lower crust, along with the mantle, however, subducted under Eurasia. The Himalayan mountain range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 km (1,500 mi) long.^[7] Its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of the Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, lies immediately west of the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. The Indus-Yarlung suture zone, along which the headwaters of these two rivers flow, separates the Himalayas from the Tibetan plateau; the rivers also separate the Himalayas from the Karakorams, the Hindu Kush, and the Transhimalaya. The range varies in width from 350 km (220 mi) in the west to 151 km (94 mi) in the east.^[8]

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