SSC
Mount Everest was earlier known in survey records as:
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Answer: Option B — Peak XV
Detailed Solution
Mount Everest was known as "Peak XV" (Peak 15) in the records of the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in the 19th century.
How Everest was identified:
- During the Great Trigonometrical Survey, British surveyors measured Himalayan peaks from the plains of India, because Nepal and Tibet were closed to foreigners.
- The peaks were given numbers in Roman numerals because their local names were not known to the surveyors.
- In 1852, Radhanath Sikdar, an Indian mathematician and "computer" in the Survey's office at Dehradun and Calcutta, calculated from observations that Peak XV was the highest mountain in the world.
- In 1856, the Surveyor General, Andrew Waugh, announced its height as 29,002 feet (8,840 m).
In 1865, the Royal Geographical Society officially named it "Mount Everest", after Sir George Everest, the former Surveyor General of India (1830-1843), on Waugh's recommendation. Everest himself had objected, saying that local names should be used.
About Mount Everest:
- Its height is 8,848.86 metres, as announced jointly by Nepal and China in December 2020.
- It lies on the border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, in the Mahalangur range of the Himalayas.
- It was first climbed on 29 May 1953 by Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay, a Sherpa from Nepal (who later lived in Darjeeling, India), as part of a British expedition led by John Hunt.
Indian firsts on Everest:
Avtar Singh Cheema: first Indian to climb Everest (1965), in an expedition led by M. S. Kohli.
Bachendri Pal: first Indian woman to climb Everest (1984).
Santosh Yadav: first woman to climb Everest twice in two seasons (1992, 1993).
Arunima Sinha: first woman amputee to climb Everest (2013).
Malavath Purna: youngest girl to climb Everest (2014, aged 13).
Other peak names:
K2 (Godwin-Austen): the second-highest mountain, in Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan; named "K2" because it was the second peak listed in the Karakoram range by T. G. Montgomerie in 1856.
Kangchenjunga: the third-highest; the highest in India.
Why not the other options?
- ✗"Peak XII" is not the name used for Everest.
- ✗"Peak IX" is not the name of Everest.
- ✗Good to know
- ✗K2 is the name of the second-highest mountain.
Quick tip
Remember: Mount Everest = earlier "Peak XV" (identified as highest by Radhanath Sikdar, 1852; named 1865 after George Everest); height 8,848.86 m (2020); first climbed 1953 (Hillary and Tenzing); K2 = Karakoram survey number.
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Physical Features of India — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Physical Features of India, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers India's location and extent, its neighbours and boundary lines, and its physiographic divisions: the Himalayas, the Northern Plains, the Peninsular Plateau, the Indian Desert, the coastal plains and the islands, along with important mountain passes, peaks and hill ranges. Questions often ask which states the Tropic of Cancer passes through, the southernmost point of India (Indira Point), the highest peak in India (Kangchenjunga), and which pass connects which regions. India shares its longest land border with Bangladesh. Learning the Himalayan ranges from north to south (Himadri, Himachal and Shiwaliks) is also useful. Practise the physical features of India questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.