The Himalayas are mountains that are located in southern Asia. They are a part of in Nepal, India, Pakistan, Tibet and Bhutan. The mountains are the highest in the world, reaching almost 9,000 meters above sea level. The Himalayas separate the Indian subcontinent from the inner part of Asia.

14 mountains are over 8,000 meters high, among them the K2 , Nanga Parbat and Mount Everest, at 8,848 meter the world’s highest mountain. The Himalayas extend over 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from the Indus Valley in the west to the Brahmaputra Valley in the east. They are between 100 and 250 kilometers wide.

Many of the mountain peaks are sacred to the people who live in the surrounding areas. Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims go there and pray to God.

How the Himalayas were formed

The Himalayas belong to the youngest mountain ranges in the world. They were formed when the Indian subcontinent, which was originally a part of the southern landmass, drifted to the north and crashed into Asia. This movement started about 70 million years ago and has been going on up to the present day. The Himalayas are still becoming taller, moving at about 7 cm per year. Earthquakes and volcanoes are evidence that the area is still very active.

Rivers and Lakes

Glaciers and permanent snow fields cover the higher regions of the Himalayas. They are the source of streams that flow into the two big rivers of the region.The Indus flows to the west and through Pakistan into the Arabia Sea. The Ganges and Brahmaputra flow to the east and get together in Bangladesh. They form  the largest delta in the world.

Climate

Almost every type of climate can be found in the different altitudes of the mountain range. The lower slopes in the south are home to tropical plants and tea. Trees grow up to a height of 4000 meters. Wheat and other cereals are grown in higher regions.

The Himalayas influence the climate in both India and Tibet. They form a barrier for monsoon winds that blow from the Indian Ocean over India. On the front side of the mountains it rains heavily while dry air blows across the plains of Tibet.

Population

The Himalayas are very sparsely populated because of the harsh climate.  Most people live on the lower Indian slopes. Many people earn their living as sherpas, guiding tourists and mountaineers to the peaks of the mountain range.

The mountains have been a natural barrier for thousands of years. They stopped people from China and the inner part of Asia to mix with the Indian population. Genghis Kahn, emperor of the Mongols, was stopped from expanding his empire to the south by the tall mountains.

Most of the passes that cross the Himalayas are over 5,000 high. They are covered with snow during the winter period and almost impossible to pass.

Tourism

Mountain climbing has become the main tourist activity in the Himalaya Mountains. It started towards the end of the 19th century when many mountaineers started climbing the peaks. In 1953 Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay were the first to reach Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain.

Lowland Forests

On the Indo-Gangetic plain at the base of the mountains, an alluvial plain drained by the Indus and Ganges-Brahmaputra river systems, vegetation varies from west to east with rainfall. The xeric Northwestern thorn scrub forests occupy the plains of Pakistan and the Indian Punjab. Further east lie the Upper Gangetic Plains Moist Deciduous forests of Uttar Pradesh and Lower plains moist deciduous forests of Bihar and West Bengal. These are monsoon forests, with drought-deciduous trees that lose their leaves during the dry season. The moister Brahmaputra Valley semi-evergreen forests occupy the plains of Assam.

Terai Belt

Above the alluvial plain lies the Terai strip, a seasonally marshy zone of sand and clay soils. The Terai has higher rainfall than the plains, and the downward-rushing rivers of the Himalaya slow down and spread out in the flatter Terai zone, depositing fertile silt during the monsoon season and receding in the dry season.