Mountain · Nepal
Dhaulagiri I
Dhaulagiri I is the seventh highest mountain on Earth at 8 167 metres, and its name comes from Sanskrit words meaning the dazzling white mountain. It stands alone in central Nepal.
Picture credit: Vyacheslav Argenberg (CC BY 4.0) · Raphael Duprat (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Dhaulagiri I?
Dhaulagiri I is part of the Dhaulagiri Himal, Himalayas.
You will find it in: Nepal.
Summit: 28.697° N, 83.493° E
The story behind it
When British surveyors measured Dhaulagiri from the plains of India in 1808, it came out taller than anything anyone had measured before, and for about thirty years the world believed it was the highest mountain on Earth. Then Kangchenjunga took the title, and in 1858 Everest took it from Kangchenjunga. Getting to the summit took much longer: eight expeditions failed before a Swiss, Austrian and Nepalese team got there on 13 May 1960, and they did it without bottled oxygen. That expedition tried something nobody had tried on a high mountain before — a small aeroplane nicknamed the Yeti, which landed supplies on a snow saddle at about 5 750 metres, higher than any aircraft had landed until then. The Yeti did not survive the trip: its control stick broke during a take-off and it crashed, though both pilots walked away.
Find it on the globe
Dhaulagiri I is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How tall is Dhaulagiri?
Dhaulagiri I is 8 167 metres high, which makes it the seventh highest mountain in the world and the highest that lies entirely inside Nepal.
Was Dhaulagiri once thought to be the highest mountain?
Yes. After it was measured in 1808 it held that title for about thirty years, until Kangchenjunga was measured and turned out to be taller — and then Everest was measured in 1858 and beat them both.
Did a plane really land on Dhaulagiri?
Yes. In 1960 a small single-engined aeroplane nicknamed the Yeti landed supplies on a snow saddle at about 5 750 metres, the highest landing anyone had made at the time. It crashed on a later take-off, and both pilots survived.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: