Highest points in
Ecuador is the farthest point from Earth's centre. • The '''highest point on Earth's surface''' measured from
sea level is the summit of
Mount Everest, on the border of
Nepal and
China. While
measurements of its height vary slightly, the elevation of its peak was most recently established in 2020 by the Nepali and Chinese authorities as above sea level. The summit was first reached probably by Sir
Edmund Hillary of
New Zealand and
Tenzing Norgay Sherpa of Nepal in 1953. • The '''point farthest from Earth's centre''' is the summit of
Chimborazo in
Ecuador, at from Earth's centre; the peak's elevation relative to sea level is . Because Earth is an
oblate spheroid rather than a perfect
sphere, it is
wider at the
equator and narrower toward each
pole. Therefore, the summit of Chimborazo, which is near the Equator, is farther away from Earth's centre than the summit of Mount Everest is; the latter is closer, at from Earth's centre.
Peru's
Huascarán (at ) contends closely with Chimborazo, though the former is a mere closer to the Earth's centre. • The
fastest point on Earth or, in other words, '''the point farthest from Earth's rotational axis''' is the summit of
Cayambe in Ecuador, which rotates around Earth's axis at a speed of and is from the axis. Like Chimborazo, which is the fourth-fastest peak at , Cayambe is close to the Equator and takes advantage of the oblate spheroid
figure of Earth. More important, however, Cayambe's proximity to the Equator means that the majority of its distance from the Earth's centre contributes to Cayambe's distance from the Earth's axis.
Highest geographical features • The
highest volcano is
Ojos del Salado on the
Argentina–
Chile border. It has the highest summit, , of any
volcano on Earth. • The
highest natural lake is an unnamed crater lake on
Ojos del Salado at , on the Argentina side. Another candidate was
Lhagba Pool on the northeast slopes of
Mount Everest, Tibet, at an elevation of , which has since dried up. • The
highest navigable lake is
Lake Titicaca, on the border of
Bolivia and
Peru in the
Andes, at . • The
highest glacier is the
Khumbu Glacier on the southwest slopes of Mount Everest in Nepal, beginning on the west side of
Lhotse at an elevation of . • The
highest river is disputed; one candidate from many possibilities is the
Ating Ho, which flows into the
Aong Tso (Hagung Tso), a large lake in Tibet, and has an elevation of about at its source at . Another very large and high river is the
Yarlung Tsangpo or upper
Brahmaputra River in Tibet, whose main stem, the
Maquan River, has its source at about above sea level at . Above these elevations, there are no constantly flowing rivers since the temperature is almost always below freezing. • The
highest island is one of a number of islands in the
Orba Co lake in Tibet, at an elevation of .
Highest points attainable by transportation • The
highest point accessible •
by land vehicle is an elevation of on
Ojos del Salado in
Chile, which was reached by the Chilean duo of Gonzalo and Eduardo Canales Moya on 21 April 2007 with a modified
Suzuki Samurai, setting the high-altitude record for a four-wheeled vehicle. •
by road (dead end) is on a mining road to the summit of
Aucanquilcha in
Chile, which reaches an elevation of . It was once usable by 20-tonne mining trucks. The road is no longer usable. •
by road (mountain pass) is disputed; there are a number of competing claims for this title due to the definition of "motorable pass" (i.e. a surfaced road or one simply passable by a vehicle): • The
highest asphalted road is the single-lane road to
Umling La, located west of
Demchok in
Ladakh,
India, which reaches ("19,300 feet" according to a
Border Roads Organisation sign there that recognizes it as the "World's Highest Motorable Pass"). Before the asphalting of the road over Umling La, the highest asphalted road was
Tibet's
Semo La pass at . It is used by trucks and buses regularly. The
Ticlio pass, on the Central Road of Peru, is the highest surfaced road in the Americas, at an elevation of . • The
highest unsurfaced road has several different claimants. All are unsurfaced or gravel roads including
Mana Pass, between India and
Tibet, which is crossed by a gravel road reaching . The heavily trafficked
Khardung La in Ladakh lies at . A possibly motorable gravel road crosses
Marsimik La in Ladakh at . •
by train is
Tanggula Pass, located on the
Qinghai–Tibet (Qingzang) Railway in the
Tanggula Mountains of Qinghai/Tibet,
China, at . The
Tanggula railway station is the world's highest railway station at . Before the Qingzang Railway was built, the highest railway ran between
Lima and
Huancayo in Peru, reaching at
Ticlio. •
by oceangoing vessel is a segment of the
Rhine–Main–Danube Canal between the
Hilpoltstein and
Bachhausen locks in
Bavaria, Germany. The locks artificially raise the surface level of the water in the canal to above mean sea level, higher than any other
lock system in the world, making it the highest point currently accessible by oceangoing commercial watercraft. ,
Peru • The
highest commercial airport is
Daocheng Yading Airport,
Sichuan, China, at . The proposed
Nagqu Dagring Airport in Tibet, if built, will be higher at . • The
highest helipad is Sonam,
Siachen Glacier, India, at a height of above sea level. • The
highest permanent human settlement is
La Rinconada, Peru, , in the Peruvian
Andes. • The '''farthest road from the Earth's centre''' is the
Road to Carrel Hut in the Ecuadorian
Andes, at an elevation of above sea level and a distance of from the centre of the Earth.
Lowest points Lowest natural points • The '''deepest point below the ocean's atmospheric surface'
is Challenger Deep, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, below sea level. Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh first reached Challenger Deep in 1960 aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste, followed by filmmaker James Cameron in 2012 aboard Deepsea Challenger. Between 2020 and 2022, DSV Limiting Factor'' made 19 dives to Challenger Deep, carrying with it 19 further visitors. • The
deepest known cave is in the
Krubera Cave in
Georgia, with its deepest known point 2,199 ± 20 metres (7,215 ± 66 ft) below its entrance. The record was set in 2006, and it remains one of only
two known caves deeper than 2,000 meters. • The
lowest point on land not covered by liquid water is the canyon under
Denman Glacier in
Antarctica, with the bedrock being below sea level. in
Israel • The
lowest point on dry land is the shore of the
Dead Sea, shared by
Israel,
Palestine and
Jordan, below sea level. As the Dead Sea waters are receding, the water surface level drops more than per year. • The '''point on the atmospheric surface closest to the Earth's centre''' (interpreted as a natural surface of the land or sea that is accessible by a person) is the surface of the
Arctic Ocean at the
Geographic North Pole (). • The '''point on the surface of Earth's crust closest to the Earth's centre''' (interpreted as a land surface or sea floor) is the bottom of
Litke Deep, in the
Arctic Ocean, at from Earth's centre; the deep's depth relative to sea level is . Because Earth is an
oblate spheroid rather than a perfect
sphere, it is
wider at the
equator and narrower toward each
pole. Therefore, the bottom of Litke Deep, which is near the North Pole, is closer to Earth's centre than the bottom of Challenger Deep is; the latter is further, at from Earth's centre.
Molloy Deep, also in Arctic Ocean (at ) from Earth's centre contends closely with Litke Deep, the difference from Earth's centre being just . • The
point on the ocean surface farthest below sea level is located in the
Indian Ocean, about southwest of India, the
Indian Ocean Geoid Low, about below the
global mean sea level. below ground at the
TauTona Mine,
Carletonville, South Africa. • The
lowest (from sea level) artificially made point with open sky may be the
Hambach surface mine, Germany, which reaches a depth of below sea level. • The
lowest (from surface) artificially made point with open sky may be the
Bingham Canyon Open Pit Copper Mine,
Utah, United States, at a depth of below surface level. • The
lowest point underwater is the -deep (as measured from the
subsea wellhead)
oil and gas well drilled on the
Tiber Oil Field in the
Gulf of Mexico. The
wellhead of this well is an additional underwater, for a total distance of as measured from sea level.
Lowest points attainable by transportation • The
lowest point accessible: •
by road, excluding roads in mines, is any of the roads alongside the
Dead Sea in
Israel,
Palestine and
Jordan, which are the lowest on Earth at below sea level. • The
lowest undersea highway tunnel is the
Ryfast tunnel in
Norway, at below sea level. •
by train, excluding tracks in mines, is located in the
Seikan Tunnel in
Japan, at below sea level. For comparison, the undersea
Channel Tunnel between the UK and France reaches a depth of below sea level. •
by ship, is located in the
Indian Ocean, about southwest of India, the
Indian Ocean Geoid Low, about below the
global mean sea level. • Some mines have roads accessible from outside or rail tracks, located more than two thousand metres below sea level, for example in some
South African gold mines. • The
lowest railroad station was formerly the Japanese
Yoshioka-Kaitei Station, at below sea level, but it closed in 2014. The lowest railroad station not inside a tunnel is below sea level, at
Beit She'an railway station in
Israel. • The
lowest airfield is the
Bar Yehuda Airfield, near
Masada,
Israel, at below sea level. • The
lowest international airport is
Atyrau Airport, near
Atyrau,
Kazakhstan, at below sea level, in the basin of the
Caspian Sea. • The
lowest major city is
Baku,
Azerbaijan, located below sea level, which makes it the lowest-lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world located below sea level.
Table of extreme elevations and air temperatures by continent ==Humans and biogeography==