It is the fact that everyone thinks they know, but perhaps we should change that to ‘thought they knew’.

Mount Everest might have been scaled by thousands of people since Sir Edmund Hilary first accomplished the feat in 1953 but it turns out it is not the world’s highest mountain.

At 8,848 metres above sea level, statistics suggest that the mountain in Nepal should be the highest point on earth.

And when compared to its nearest rivals outside the Himalayas it dwarfs them – it is almost 2,000 metres bigger than the next best, Aconcagua in the Andes.

But, technically speaking, the mountain is not the highest point on earth – just the highest when measured from sea level.

That honour actually goes to the lesser known Chimborazo in Ecuador.

It’s altitude is far lower than Everest’s – 6,310 metres – but if you stand on its peak you are actually closer to space.

Confused? It is all to do with the curvature of the earth.

Our planet may be a sphere but it is not perfect.

It is flatter at the poles but bulges slightly at the the middle making its radius 13 miles greater than the equator.

What this all means is that if you are talking about highest points, Chimborazo is king.

It is 3,971 miles from the earth’s centre compared to Everest’s 3,965.8 miles.

This is all despite geologists realising on a recent climb that the mountain in Ecuador is 15 feet lower than previously thought.

Source:
courtesy of METRO

by Toby Meyjes

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