Prelims ask
Countries along the arc, Everest’s border, and ‘K2 is not here’.
Asia · Young fold
Himalayas
- Countries
- West to east: Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan and China (Tibet). Afghanistan is the Hindu Kush, not the Himalaya.
- Length
- About 2,400 km. Exam-safe figure.
- Orientation
- Northwest–southeast arc, broadly west–east.
- Mountain type
- Young fold
- Plates
- Indian plate colliding with the Eurasian plate. Still converging. Sediments of the Tethys were folded and thrust.
- Highest peak
- Everest (Sagarmatha / Chomolungma), 8,848.86 m, Nepal–China. Exam-safe rounded value: 8,848 m.
- Rivers that rise here
- Indus, Sutlej and Brahmaputra (Yarlung Tsangpo) rise north of the high crest and cut through it. Ganga headwaters (Bhagirathi, Alaknanda) and Yamuna rise on the Indian side. Kosi, Gandak and Karnali are major Himalayan tributaries of the Ganga.
- Climate and rain shadow
- Summer monsoon strikes the south face. Tibet, to the north, is the rain shadow — a cold desert. In winter the range blocks Central Asian cold air from the Indian plains.
Mains use
The standard continent–continent example: earthquakes yes, crest volcanism no. Himalayas–Tibet is the rain-shadow pair. Included here as a world range, not as an Indian drainage chapter.