Hoverla

Where is Hoverla?

Hoverla is part of the Chornohora, Ukrainian Carpathians.

You will find it in: Ukraine.

Summit: 48.160° N, 24.500° E

The story behind it

Hoverla has no sharp rocky peak: its top is a wide grassy dome where the wind almost never stops. The mountain is made of layers of sandstone and shale that were pressed together long ago and then worn smooth, which is why the ridge looks soft and rolling instead of jagged. Beech and spruce forests climb the lower slopes, and above them stretch open pastures where shepherds have taken sheep and cattle for summer grazing for many generations. Marked paths lead up from the villages nearby, and on a clear summer day whole school classes walk to the summit, where a Ukrainian flag usually snaps in the wind. Weather changes fast up there, with fog and cold rain arriving within minutes even in July, so walkers carry warm clothes whatever the valley sky looks like.

Find it on the globe

Hoverla 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.