Growing Pains

Updated August 5, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Adjusting to Everest's new height

Future generations will remember Everest's new height: two extra meters have rounded out the number. (Source/Nelson Chenkin) Everest Links Everest Almanac A History of Climbing Everest Quiz: Explorers and Adventurers Measuring Mountains Everest Timeline Climbing the World's Fourteen 8,000-meter Peaks The Seven Summits Everest Trivia Everest Web Sites Everest Reading List The Highest Mountains in the World

If the number 29,028 is seared into your mind along with 1066, 1492, and other seemingly immutable figures, get ready for a big change in the holy canon of statistics. That number, of course, was the elevation—in feet—of the world's highest mountain.

As of Nov. 11, 1999, the new official height of Mt. Everest was announced as 29,035 feet.