- You can’t get any higher than this.
Whether you’re going up or down, people have always been fascinated with going to the max. We’ve previously taken a look at how deep humanity has dug, but what about the other direction?
Well, it seems nature has us solidly beat in reaching for the skies. Even the tallest of human buildings are nothing compared to the heights mountains can reach.
Still, it’s always interesting to see how high you can get. Here are nine of the highest places on Earth in various categories.
1. Tallest Building — Burj Khalifa
Let’s kick things off with man-made structures. The tallest building currently in existence is Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE.
This 163-floor super skyscraper reaches up to 2,722 feet. The top floor, however, is located at 1,921 feet.
The rest of the structure is made of its 796-foot-tall antenna spire. You’d need some Spider-Man powers to be able to scale that.
2. Highest Paved Road — Umling La Pass
Mountain climbing is a strenuous activity — unless you take a nice, paved road up to the heights. The Umling La Pass in India is both the highest paved road and mountain pass in the world.
Here, the asphalt reaches an impressive height of 19,024 feet. To put that into perspective, that’s roughly half of the cruising altitude of commercial passenger jets.
You can’t drive just any car to Umling La, though. The low temperatures and oxygen levels at the pass will prevent most regular car engines from operating.
3. Highest Point Reachable by Vehicle — Ojos del Salado
You can get higher than Umling La in a car, but you’ll have to go off-road. The highest point anyone has ever reached on a land vehicle sits at 22,051 feet.
That record was set in 2023 at Ojos del Salado, Chile. French race driver Romain Dumas drove a heavily modified Porsche 911 to the western rim of the volcano.
And when we say heavily modified, we mean it — virtually all components on the underside of the car were replaced for the climb. Funnily enough, the previous record that Dumas broke was also set at Ojos del Salado.
4. Greatest Vertical Drop — Mount Thor
Falling is always a danger when scaling a mountain, but what’s the farthest distance you can fall straight down? Well, that would be 4,100 feet and you’ll find that drop on Mount Thor in Canada.
Although only 5,495 feet high in itself, Mount Thor’s peak consists of a striking granite overhang sticking out from the earth. Due to its curving nature, it forms an incredibly long vertical drop from its tip.
Fortunately, we’re not aware of anyone actually falling from Mount Thor.
5. Highest Dormant Volcano — Ojos del Salado
Although Romain Dumas took his Porsche high up on Ojos del Salado, he didn’t take it all the way to the top. That would have required him to keep climbing an additional 550 or so feet to reach Ojos del Salado’s peak at 22,615 feet.
That height makes Ojos del Salado the world’s tallest volcano, and the world’s tallest dormant volcano. However, the mountain may not be sleeping as deeply as you might think.
Technically speaking, Ojos del Salado is not an extinct volcano and could theoretically erupt at any moment. However, since it hasn’t erupted since around the year 750, it’s considered dormant.
6. Highest Active Volcano — Llullaillaco
While Ojos del Salado is asleep (for the time being), Llullaillaco on the border of Argentina and Chile is not. At a height of 22,110 feet, it’s the highest active volcano on the planet.
However, that doesn’t mean Llullaillaco is constantly spewing smoke and lava. Its last reported eruption happened in 1960 and the mountain seems to have fallen silent since then.
However, Lago Llullaillaco, a frozen lake on the side of the volcano, bears signs of geothermal heating. Llullaillaco is still churning under the surface but it’s chosen to behave, for now.
7. World’s Highest Mountain (from Sea Level) — Mount Everest
The world’s highest mountain certainly needs no introduction. You know it, you love it — it’s Mount Everest.
This Himalayan peak reaches a height of 29,031 feet when measured from ocean level. Its status as the highest of all mountains attracts plenty of mountain climbers to try their luck on its slopes.
And you need luck if you go there. Even skilled climbers have died on Mount Everest due to sheer misfortune, making it one of the most dangerous travel destinations in the world.
8. World’s Highest Mountain (from Origin) — Mauna Kea
Now, Mount Everest is the world’s tallest mountain if you start counting from the surface of the ocean. However, Mauna Kea in Hawaii has it squarely beaten if we plunge into the depths of the ocean first.
Mauna Kea is the world’s highest mountain in total. Counting from its point of origin at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, it reaches a height of 30,610 feet.
However, more than half of the mountain is underwater. Only 13,803 feet of Mauna Kea stick out of the ocean.
9. The Farthest Point from the Center of Earth — Chimborazo
At this point, you might imagine the peak of either Mount Everest or Mauna Kea would be as far from the center of Earth as you can get without flying. But nope — that place is atop Chimborazo.
As you may or may not know, Earth is not perfectly round. It’s a bit squished vertically, meaning the region around the Equator sticks out more than the North and South Poles.
Chrimborazo happens to sit right on this so-called equatorial bulge. Consequently, although the mountain itself is a measly 20,549 feet high, its peak is the farthest point from Earth’s core on the planet.