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Great Himalayas
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A village with clustered stone houses sits in the foreground, with the snow-covered Annapurna massif towering above green hills in Nepal's Himalayan Range. Great Himalayas Leh, India: palace of the kings of Ladakh A simplified geological cross section of the Himalayas running north to south, showing the Ganga Basin as a foreland basin, crystalline rock overthrusting the Indian Plate, and a steep thrust fault ramp beneath the Great Himalayas, with labeled features including the Main Boundary Thrust, Main Central Thrust, ophiolites, and Kangdese granites.
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Also called:
Higher Himalayas or Great Himalaya Range
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Annapurna
Annapurna The Annapurna massif rising above a village in north-central Nepal.

Great Himalayas

mountain range, Asia
Also known as: Great Himalaya Range, Higher Himalayas, Himadri(Show More)
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Great Himalayas
Great Himalayas

Great Himalayas, highest and northernmost section of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It extends southeastward across northern Pakistan, northern India, and Nepal before trending eastward across Sikkim state (India) and Bhutan and finally turning northeastward across northern Arunachal Pradesh state (India); throughout nearly all of its length it adjoins to the north the southern Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The range’s total length is some 1,400 miles (2,300 km), and it has an average elevation of more than 20,000 feet (6,100 metres). The Great Himalayas contain many of the world’s tallest peaks, including (from west to east) Nanga Parbat, Annapurna, Mount Everest, and Kanchenjunga.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Lorraine Murray.
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