Shangri La Superlatives

• 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)