Shangri La Superlatives
Shangri La is a land of geographical contrasts. The Shangri La region can boast the world of several amazing records :
- The highest point in the world - Mt. Everest (8,848m high)
- The youngest mountain range in the world - the Himalaya Range
- The deepest river gorge in the world - Kali Gandaki river gorge, Central Nepal
- The deepest valley in the world - Kali Gandaki Valley, Central Nepal (4,404m deep)
- The deepest canyan in the world - Namcha Barwa canyon (5,909m deep)
(The Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA is at 1,430m and the Colca Canyon, Peru is at 3,205m.)
- The largest river island in the world - Majuli, Assam , Eastern India
- Origin of two largest rivers - Brahmaputra and the Ganges
- The world's highest lake - Lake Tilicho, Central Nepal
- The world's second rainiest place - Cherapunji, Eastern India
- The world's only habitat of bird species- Spiny Babbler
- The coldest place outside Siberia - Drass in winter, Ladakh, Northwestern India
- The coldest points on earth - temperatures as low as -80 degrees Celsius
- World's largest area under snow and glaciers outside the polar regions.
- One of the most extensive biodiversity
- Home to the world's rarest plant - Lady's Slipper orchid
- One of the biggest elevation gradient producing steepest slopes and greatest relief : from 60m - 8,848m within 100 miles
Click here for an aerial picture of a small section of the topographic gradient. (1:50,000 - Nov. 92)
- Largest number of high mountains in a confined space - Karakoram
60 of them over 23,000ft (7,000m) culminating in K2
- The Himalaya-Ganges system -- one of the world's largest highland-lowland interactive systems. (Ives and Messerli)
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© Rajesh B. Shrestha (rajs@aleph0.clarku.edu)