Mount Everest gets an altitude adjustment: Nepal and China agree on height

Kathmandu, Dec 07: The world's tallest peak will get a new, unified official height from the two nations it straddles. After the a-year-long survey, China and Nepal will announce the peak's stature on Tuesday, Susheel Dangol, the man in charge of Nepal's Everest-measurement project, said on Sunday.

Until now, China said it was 29,017 feet. Nepal said it was a little taller, at 29,028 feet.

The Department of Survey undertook the measures on Sunday informed about the planned event to announce the new height and sent invitation to all media outlets and representatives.

"We will be hosting a program to announce the new height on Tuesday afternoon at our office. People who actively took part in this procedure also are scheduled to be felicitated on the occasion," said Sushil Narsingh Rajbhandari, Deputy Director General at Survey Department of Himalayan Nation.

Nepal undertook the initiation to measure the height of the world's tallest peak after speculations that widely accepted that the height of 8,848 metres might not be the actual length after the 2015 earthquake which shook the nation.

While deploying Nepali officials and experts to re-measure the mountain's height, the Government of Nepal also coordinated with China in its domestic efforts. During Chinese President Xi Jinping's Nepal visit in 2019, both nations signed an agreement to jointly announce the height of the world's tallest peak.

Measured in 1954 by Survey of India, 8,848 metres is the widely accepted and recognized height of Sagarmatha, the Nepali name for the famed world's tallest peak.