Mountain · Tuvalu
Unnamed rise on Niulakita
Unnamed rise on Niulakita is the highest point of Tuvalu, reaching just 4.6 metres above the sea. The little hill sits on a coral island far out in the Pacific Ocean, where the land stays flat.
Where is the Unnamed rise on Niulakita?
The Unnamed rise on Niulakita is part of the Coral island.
You will find it in: Tuvalu.
Summit: 10.789° S, 179.473° E
The story behind it
Niulakita is the smallest inhabited island of Tuvalu, a ring of sand and coral that a person can walk around in well under an hour. The whole island was built by tiny coral animals and later covered with broken shells and sand, so there is no rock to climb and no peak to look for, only a gentle swelling of the ground under the coconut palms. Nobody has ever given this rise a name, and the measurements of its height differ by a couple of metres depending on who measured it and where. Seabirds nest in the trees, hermit crabs shuffle across the sand, and from any spot on the island the water is only a few minutes away. The families who live here watch the ocean closely, because storm waves can roll straight over land that lies this low.
Find it on the globe
The Unnamed rise on Niulakita 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 high is the highest point of Tuvalu?
The rise on Niulakita reaches 4.6 metres above sea level. That is about as high as a small house, and it makes Tuvalu one of the flattest countries in the world.
Which country is Niulakita in?
Niulakita belongs to Tuvalu, an island country in the Pacific Ocean. It is the southernmost of the Tuvaluan islands and lies far from the capital, so boats reach it only now and then.
Can the highest point of Tuvalu be climbed?
No climbing gear is needed, because a short walk across the sand is enough to stand on the highest ground of the whole country. The harder part is getting to Niulakita at all, since the island is tiny and rarely visited.
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.
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