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The Himalayas also Himalaya are a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. By extension, it is also the name of the massive mountain system which includes the Himalaya proper, the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, and a host of minor ranges extending from the Pamir Knot. The name is from Sanskrit himālaya, a tatpurusa compound meaning "the abode of snow".Together, the Himalaya mountain system is the planet's highest and home to the world's highest peaks: the Eight-thousanders, including Mount Everest. To comprehend the enormous scale of Himalayan peaks, consider that Aconcagua, in the Andes, at 6,962 m, is the highest peak outside the Himalaya, while the Himalayan system has over 100 separate mountains exceeding 7,200 meters.
The Himalaya region is dotted with hundreds of lakes.Most lakes are found at altitudes of less than 5,000 m, with the size of the lakes diminishing with altitude. The largest lake is the Pangong Tso, which is spread across the border between India and Tibet. It is situated at an altitude of 4,600 m, and is 8 km wide and nearly 134 km long. A notable high lake is the Gurudogmar in North Sikkim at an altitude of 5,148 m.Other major lakes include the Tsongmo lake, near the Indo-China border in Sikkim and Tilicho lake, a large lake in an area that was closed to outsiders until recently.
The Himalayas stretch across six nations: Bhutan,China,India,Nepal,Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is the source of three of the world's major river systems, the Indus Basin, the Ganga-Brahmaputra Basin and the Yangtze Basin. An estimated 750 million people live in the watershed area of the Himalayan rivers,which also includes Bangladesh.
The Himalayan range encompasses a very large number of glaciers,notable among which is the Siachen Glacier, the largest in the world outside the polar region.Some of the other more famous glaciers include the Gangotri and Yamunotri,Nubra, Biafo and Baltoro,Zemu and Khumbu glaciers.
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