The highest point of this mountain range, Mount Everest, with its altitude of 8848 meters, the highest point of the earth.
Called Qomolangma by the tibetans, or Sagarmantha by the nepalese, this mountain has always been worshipped by asian people, and has fascinated western people who tried everything to reach its summit.
Sir Edmund Hillary, together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay are the first climbers who reached the top in 1953.

On the northern side of the himalaya lies the immense tibetan plateau. This huge territory with an average altitude over 4000 meters only counts a few millions of nomad inhabitants who live, or should we say survuive, in very hard conditions of life.
These plains, lined by some of the highest mountains of the planet, and scattered with many lakes, offers really breathtaking landscapes...

The tibetans people are nomads, and even the tibetans who settled down in cities and villages have the habit to leave their homes for very long pilgimages, who drive them on the roads winding across the immense plateau for months. They travel to visit some of the sacred places of Tibet, which adds up a lot of points to their karma, and which will allow them to have a better reincarnation.
When you travel in Tibet, you get used to see people 'popping out' of nowhere, without any sign on the horizon indicating a human presence.
On the shores of Namtso lake, for example, some 190 kilometers north of the capital city Lhassa, you can meet nomads, coming out of nowhere. Maybe they have been walking for days, maybe they've been on the road for months, or they are simply nomads who have built their tents a little bit further away.
The air on the high tibetan plateau is so clear and so thin that the visibility is exceptionnally good, which can lead to non negligible appreciations mistakes... A point which seems pretty close can be, in reality, much further away than it seems. On the picture, on the left, the limit of the snow is in fact more than ten kilometers away...

If the tibetan people have been able to survive on this arid and icy plateau, it is without a doubt thanks to their yaks herds.
These animals supply tibetan people with the most important part of their food and clothing. The precious milk is transformed into butter, so that it can be kept longer, then it is stored in yak stomacs. It is used in the making of tsampa, the basic food of tibetan people, made out of grilled barley flour, yak butter, often rancid, and tea. The yak butter is also used to prepare salted yak butter tea. The skin of these animals is also used to make coats or blankets, and their excements, dried in the sun are used to make fire for heating and cooking.
Although it seems imposing and scary, the yak is a peaceful and rather timid animal.

The building styles of the houses, the customs and the clothing of people vary from one village to the other even if they are only a few kilometers apart.
There is an ethnical group living in the Kathmandu valley, the Newaris, and the valleys north of the Annapurna range have a tibetan culture. The little kingdom of Mustang, in the upper part of the Marsiangdi river also has a different culture. The region of Mount Everest, east of the country, is inhabited by the well known Sherpas.
The picture on the right, taken in the village of Manang, on the trekking path that runs around the Annapurna range, shows the architecture of the stone houses, typically tibetan, with their flat roof, covered with the wood stored for the long winter, and the courtyard and terraces.
The inevitable prayer flag flaps on the top of the house, and we can also see villagers carrying their heavy burdens on their back, the characteristic nepalese way, by holding it with the help of a strap coming on their forehead.
The only sign of industialization (apart from the changes brought by the western tourists) : the electrical wires...

Further east, set between Nepal et le Bhutan, you can see the city of Darjeeling. The name of this place is well known because of the tea produced in this region of the Himalaya. Darjeeling is situated at an altitude of 2000 meters. When India was still a british colony, Darjeeling was the summer resort where the english used to come for cool air during the hottest months of the dry season.
From Darjeeling you ca see Kanchenjunga, the second summit of the world, with an alititude of 8598 meters.

Following the Himalaya towards north-west until Pakistan, you meet the Indus river showing the limit of the Himalaya. If you cross Indus river, you enter the Karakoram range.
The highest summit of this range is the Nanga Parbat, with its 8126 meters. Its north face gave this mountain its nickname : 'the killer mountain', because more than 80 climbers lost their lives during the many attempts to climb this vertical wall of more than 4000 meters of rocks and ice.

On the way towards north, you cross the chinese border. You finally reach the Pamir plateau, a territory covering portions of Pakistan, Tadjikistan, Afghanistan and China.
This high plateau offers amazing views, with camel herds, sand dune deserts and snowcaped peaks in the background.
Near Tashkurgan, in China, you can see mount Muztag-Ata, with its 7546 meters.