Nepal
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Where is Nepal located?
Nepal is a landlocked country in Asia, situated along the southern slopes of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It is located between India to the east, south, and west, and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north. The country extends roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) from east to west and 90 to 150 miles from north to south. Nepal's climate ranges from subtropical monsoon conditions to cool temperate and alpine climates, influenced by elevation and subtropical latitude.
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What is the capital city of Nepal?
Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal. Situated in a hilly region near the Baghmati and Vishnumati rivers' meeting point, it sits 4,344 feet (1,324 metres) above sea level. Raja Gunakamadeva founded it in 723, originally calling it Manju-Patan. The current name is derived from a wooden temple (kath, "wood"; mandir, "temple") built in 1596.
Kathmandu has grown into Nepal's most vital commercial hub thanks to Newar merchant families. The city became the hub of the national transportation system in the 1970s with new roads and expanded air service. The Kathmandu Valley, recognized for its significant historical and cultural value, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979.
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What are some major physical features of Nepal?
Nepal's physical features include the Tarai, the Churia Range, the mid-mountain region, and the Great Himalaya Range. The Tarai is a low, flat, fertile area that borders India. The Churia Range rises sharply to over 4,000 feet. Between the Churia Range and the Mahābhārat Range lies the Inner Tarai. The mid-mountain region, ranging from 8,000 to 14,000 feet, contains the valleys of Kathmandu and Pokhara. The Great Himalaya Range, reaching over 29,000 feet, has the world’s highest peaks, such as Everest and Kanchenjunga. Nepal's rivers, including the Kosi, Narayani, and Karnali, have significant potential for hydroelectric power.
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What languages are spoken in Nepal?
The principal and official language of Nepal is Nepali, also known as Gorkhali, which is spoken in the Tarai and mid-mountain regions and belongs to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family. Languages of the north and east are predominantly of the Tibeto-Burman family, including Magar, Gurung, Rai, Limbu, Sunwar, Tamang, Newari, and Bhutia dialects like Sherpa and Thakali. Newari has been influenced by both Tibeto-Burman and Indo-European languages. In Nepal, the Pahari, who speak Indo-European languages, represent the majority of the population, though large groups of Tibeto-Burman speakers are found throughout the country.
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What religions are commonly practiced in Nepal?
Nepal does not have an official religion; however, the population is comprised of a vast majority of Hindus, though a smaller percentage practices Buddhism and other faiths. The traditions of the Newar community show the synthesis between the value systems of both Hindu and Buddhist religions, with versions of legends in both religions being accepted. Those of Indo-Aryan descent have held positions of power in Nepal for centuries, and the ruling families have been of Indo-Aryan and Hindu background.
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Why is Mount Everest important to Nepal and the world?
Mount Everest is significant to Nepal and the world for several reasons:
- Cultural and spiritual importance Local populations have long revered the mountain, calling it Chomolungma, meaning "Goddess Mother of the World," in Tibetan, and Sagarmatha, or "Peak of Heaven," in Sanskrit.
- Economic opportunities Everest has become a significant industry for Nepal and China, with the cost of a standard climb ranging from $28,000 to $85,000 per person. The influx of foreign climbers and trekkers has dramatically changed the lives of local Sherpa communities, as their livelihood increasingly depends on these expeditions. Tourism is a growing industry in Nepal, though it is mostly confined to the Kathmandu Valley.
- Environmental significance The mountain and its surrounding valleys lie within Sagarmatha National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site established in 1976.
- Climbing Challenge The summit is the pinnacle of mountaineering because of its challenge and danger.
- Scientific Research Global positioning instruments on Everest since the late 1990s have provided data that indicates the mountain continues to move a few inches to the northeast and rise a fraction of an inch each year.
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News •
Nepal, country of Asia, lying along the southern slopes of the Himalayan mountain ranges. It is a landlocked country located between India to the east, south, and west and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north. Its territory extends roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) from east to west and 90 to 150 miles from north to south. The capital is Kathmandu.
Nepal, long under the rule of hereditary prime ministers favoring a policy of isolation, remained closed to the outside world until a palace revolt in 1950 restored the crown’s authority in 1951; the country gained admission to the United Nations in 1955. In 1991 the kingdom established a multiparty parliamentary system. In 2008, however, after a decade-long period of violence and turbulent negotiation with a strong Maoist insurgency, the monarchy was dissolved, and Nepal was declared a democratic republic.
- Head Of Government:
- Prime Minister: Balendra Shah
- Capital:
- Kathmandu
- Population:
- (2026 est.) 30,425,000
- Currency Exchange Rate:
- 1 USD equals 150.553 Nepalese rupee
- Head Of State:
- President: Ram Chandra Poudel
- Form Of Government:
- federal multiparty republic with two legislative houses (National Assembly [59] and House of Representatives [275])1
- Official Language:
- Nepali
- Official Religion:
- none
- Official Name:
- Sanghiya Loktantrik Ganatantra Nepal (Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal)
- Total Area (Sq Km):
- 147,181
- Total Area (Sq Mi):
- 56,827
- Monetary Unit:
- Nepalese rupee (NRs)
- Population Rank:
- (2026) 52
- Population Projection 2030:
- 32,719,000
- Density: Persons Per Sq Mi:
- (2026) 535.4
- Density: Persons Per Sq Km:
- (2026) 206.7
- Urban-Rural Population:
- Urban: (2021) 66.2%
- Rural: (2021) 33.8%
- Life Expectancy At Birth:
- Male: (2021) 68.3 years
- Female: (2021) 71.8 years
- Gni (U.S.$ ’000,000):
- (2024) 43,729
- Gni Per Capita (U.S.$):
- (2024) 1,470
- A new constitution was enacted on September 20, 2015; it called for the creation of a bicameral federal parliament.
Wedged between two giants, India and China, Nepal seeks to keep a balance between the two countries in its foreign policy—and thus to remain independent. A factor that contributes immensely to the geopolitical importance of the country is the fact that a strong Nepal can deny China access to the rich Gangetic Plain; Nepal thus marks the southern boundary of the Chinese sphere north of the Himalayas in Asia.
As a result of its years of geographic and self-imposed isolation, Nepal is one of the least developed nations of the world. In recent years many countries, including India, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Canada, and Switzerland, have provided economic assistance to Nepal. The extent of foreign aid to Nepal has been influenced to a considerable degree by the strategic position of the country between India and China.
In September 2025, youth-led protests against a sweeping social media ban toppled Nepal’s government. Read more about the 2025 Nepalese Gen Z Protests.
Land
Relief
Nepal contains some of the most rugged and difficult mountain terrain in the world. Roughly 75 percent of the country is covered by mountains. From the south to the north, Nepal can be divided into four main physical belts, each of which extends east to west across the country. These are, first, the Tarai, a low, flat, fertile land adjacent to the border of India; second, the forested Churia foothills and the Inner Tarai zone, rising from the Tarai plain to the rugged Mahābhārat Range; third, the mid-mountain region between the Mahābhārat Range and the Great Himalayas; and, fourth, the Great Himalaya Range, rising to more than 29,000 feet (some 8,850 meters).
The Tarai forms the northern extension of the Gangetic Plain and varies in width from less than 16 to more than 20 miles, narrowing considerably in several places. A 10-mile-wide belt of rich agricultural land stretches along the southern part of the Tarai; the northern section, adjoining the foothills, is a marshy region in which wild animals abound and malaria is endemic.
The Churia Range, which is sparsely populated, rises in almost perpendicular escarpments to an altitude of more than 4,000 feet. Between the Churia Range to the south and the Mahābhārat Range to the north, there are broad basins from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high, about 10 miles wide, and 20 to 40 miles long; these basins are often referred to as the Inner Tarai. In many places they have been cleared of the forests and savanna grass to provide timber and areas for cultivation.
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A complex system of mountain ranges, some 50 miles in width and varying in elevation from 8,000 to 14,000 feet, lie between the Mahābhārat Range and the Great Himalayas. The ridges of the Mahābhārat Range present a steep escarpment toward the south and a relatively gentle slope toward the north. To the north of the Mahābhārat Range, which encloses the valley of Kathmandu, are the more lofty ranges of the Inner Himalaya (Lesser Himalaya), rising to perpetually snow-covered peaks. The Kathmandu and the Pokharā valleys lying within this mid-mountain region are flat basins, formerly covered with lakes, that were formed by the deposition of fluvial and fluvioglacial material brought down by rivers and glaciers from the enclosing ranges during the four glacial and intervening warm phases of the Pleistocene Epoch (from about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago).
The Great Himalaya Range, ranging in elevation from 14,000 to more than 29,000 feet, contains many of the world’s highest peaks—Everest, Kānchenjunga I, Lhotse I, Makālu I, Cho Oyu, Dhaulāgiri I, Manāslu I, and Annapūrna I—all of them above 26,400 feet. Except for scattered settlements in high mountain valleys, this entire area is uninhabited.
Drainage
The Kathmandu Valley, the political and cultural hub of the nation, is drained by the Bāghmati River, flowing southward, which washes the steps of the sacred temple of Paśupatinātha (Pashupatinath) and rushes out of the valley through the deeply cut Chhobar gorge. Some sandy layers of the lacustrine beds act as aquifers (water-bearing strata of permeable rock, sand, or gravel), and springs occur in the Kathmandu Valley where the sands outcrop. The springwater often gushes out of dragon-shaped mouths of stone made by the Nepalese; it is then collected in tanks for drinking and washing and also for raising paddy nurseries in May, before the monsoon. Drained by the Seti River, the Pokharā Valley, 96 miles west of Kathmandu, is also a flat lacustrine basin. There are a few remnant lakes in the Pokharā basin, the largest being Phewa Lake, which is about two miles long and nearly a mile wide. North of the basin lies the Annapūrna massif of the Great Himalaya Range.
The major rivers of Nepal—the Kosi, Nārāyani (Gandak), and Karnāli, running southward across the strike of the Himalayan ranges—form transverse valleys with deep gorges, which are generally several thousand feet in depth from the crest of the bordering ranges. The watershed of these rivers lies not along the line of highest peaks in the Himalayas but to the north of it, usually in Tibet.
The rivers have considerable potential for development of hydroelectric power. Two irrigation-hydroelectric projects have been undertaken jointly with India on the Kosi and Nārāyani rivers. Discussions have been held to develop the enormous potential of the Karnāli River. A 60,000-kilowatt hydroelectric project at Kulekhani, funded by the World Bank, Kuwait, and Japan, began operation in 1982.
In the upper courses of all Nepalese rivers, which run through mountain regions, there are little or no flood problems. In low-lying areas of the Tarai plain, however, serious floods occur.
The rivers and small streams of the Tarai, especially those in which the dry season discharge is small, are polluted by large quantities of domestic waste thrown into them. Towns and villages have expanded without proper provision for sewage disposal facilities, and more industries have been established at selected centers in the Tarai. The polluted surface water in the Kathmandu and Pokharā valleys, as well as in the Tarai, are unacceptable for drinking.