Everest, MOUNT

Everest, MOUNT, a peak of the Himalayas, in Nepal, and the highest ascertained point on the surface of the globe, rises to a height of 29,002 feet above the sea, in $27^\{\backslash circ\}\; 59\text{'}\; 12\text{'}\text{'}$ N. lat., and $86^\{\backslash circ\}\; 58\text{'}\; 6\text{'}\text{'}$ E. long. It was named in honour of Sir George Everest (1790–1866), surveyor-general of India, who completed in 1841 the great trigonometrical survey, and, having retired in 1843, published in 1847 his principal work, An Account of the Measurement of two Sections of the Meridional Arc of India. Everest was elected a Fellow of the Royal and other scientific societies, and was knighted in 1861.