Himalaya

The Himalayas, or Himalaya (/ˌhɪməˈleɪə, hɪˈmɑːləjə/; Sanskrit: IPA: [ɦɪmɐːləjɐː], himá 'snow,' ā-laya
'dwelling, abode'[1]) are a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from
the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount
Everest. Over 100 peaks exceeding 7,200 m (23,600 ft) in elevation lie in the Himalayas. By contrast, the
highest peak outside Asia (Aconcagua, in the Andes) is 6,961 m (22,838 ft) tall.

The Himalayas abut or cross five countries: Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, and Pakistan. The sovereignty of
the range in the Kashmir region is disputed among India, Pakistan, and China. The Himalayan range is
bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan
Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the world's major rivers, the Hindu, the
Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, rise in the vicinity of the Himalayas, and their combined
drainage basin is home to some 600 million people; 53 million people live in the Himalayas. The
Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia and Tibet; many Himalayan peaks are
sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate, the Himalayan mountain
range runs west-northwest to east-southeast in an arc 2,400 km (1,500 mi) long. Its western anchor,
Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of the Hindu river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha
Barwa, lies immediately west of the great bend of the Yarlung Tsangpo River. The range varies in width
from 350 km (220 mi) in the west to 150 km (93 mi) in the east.

Hydrology
Despite their scale, the Himalayas do not form a major watershed, and a number of rivers cut through
the range, particularly in the eastern part of the range. As a result, the main ridge of the Himalayas is not
clearly defined, and mountain passes are not as significant for traversing the range as with other
mountain ranges. The rivers of the Himalayas drain into two large river systems:

The western rivers combine into the Hindu Basin. The Hindu itself forms the northern and western
boundaries of the Himalayas. It begins in Tibet at the confluence of Sengge and Gar rivers and flows
north-west through India into Pakistan before turning south-west to the Arabian Sea. It is fed by several
major tributaries draining the southern slopes of the Himalayas, including the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi,
Beas and Sutlej rivers, the five rivers of the Punjab.

The other Himalayan rivers drain the Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin. Its main rivers are the Ganges, the
Brahmaputra and the Yamuna, as well as other tributaries. The Brahmaputra originates as the Yarlung
Tsangpo River in western Tibet, and flows east through Tibet and west through the plains of Assam. The
Ganges and the Brahmaputra meet in Bangladesh and drain into the Bay of Bengal through the world's
largest river delta, the Sunderbans.

Glaciers
The great ranges of central Asia, including the Himalayas, contain the third-largest deposit of ice and
snow in the world, after Antarctica and the Arctic. The Himalayan range encompasses about 15,000
glaciers, which store about 12,000 km3 (2,900 cu mi) of fresh water. Its glaciers include the Gangotri and
Yamunotri (Uttarakhand) and Khumbu glaciers (Mount Everest region), Langtang glacier (Langtang
region) and Zemu (Sikkim).