Kangchenjunga

Kangchenjunga
Nepali: कञ्चनजङ्घा, romanized: Kanchanjanghā
Kangchenjunga from Pelling, Sikkim, India
Highest point
Elevation	8,586 m (28,169 ft)[1] Ranked 3rd
Prominence	3,922 m (12,867 ft)[2] Ranked 29th
Listing	Eight-thousander Seven Third Summits List of mountains in India List of mountains in Nepal Country high point (India) Ultra-prominent peak
Coordinates	27°42′09″N 88°08′48″E / 27.70250°N 88.14667°E / 27.70250; 88.14667[2]
Geography
Kangchenjunga Location of Kangchenjunga Show map of Sikkim Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga (Koshi Province) Show map of Koshi Province Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga (India) Show map of India Kangchenjunga Kangchenjunga (Nepal) Show map of Nepal
Location	Taplejung District, Nepal Mangan district, Sikkim, India[2]
Parent range	Himalayas
Climbing
First ascent	25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band on the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition (First winter ascent 11 January 1986 by Jerzy Kukuczka and Krzysztof Wielicki)[3][4]
Easiest route	glacier/snow/ice climb

Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā and Khangchendzonga, is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at 8,586 m (28,169 ft) in a section of the Himalayas, the Kangchenjunga Himal, which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies in the border region between Koshi Province of Nepal and Sikkim state of India, with three of the five peaks, namely Main, Central and South, directly on the border, and the peaks West and Kangbachen in Nepal's Taplejung District.

Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations and measurements by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 showed that Mount Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, is actually higher. After allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain of the world.

The Kangchenjunga is a sacred mountain in Nepal and Sikkim and was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of the 1955 British Kangchenjunga expedition. They stopped just short of the true summit, keeping a promise given to Tashi Namgyal, the Chogyal of the Kingdom of Sikkim, that the top of the mountain would remain inviolate. The Indian side of the mountain is off-limits to climbers. In 2016, the adjoining Khangchendzonga National Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.