Its name.
It’s named after a George Everest, who
- never saw the mountain,
- never went anywhere near the Himalayas.
- Never climbed anything more inspiring than a step-ladder.
- Objected strongly to naming the mountain after him.
- When it was named, no one knew that it’s the tallest mountain in the world. It was mere rockpile, which explained George’s frosty euphoric deficit on the matter.
George objected strenuously to the mountain being named after him. But, the name went over his head anyway.
Even the pronunciation is different. George was insistent that his name be pronounced Eve-rest. As in Adam and Eve. Not Ever-rest.
George spent 20 years in India on empire tour of duty. He had bouts of intermittent downtime there. Typhus, fevers, diarrhoea. Torrid innings. But mercifully, never air sickness. He returned permanently to England in 1843, 22 years before the mountain was named in 1865.
It’s almost the only mountain in Asia with an English name. But why? British cartographers were generally fairly scrupulous about preserving native names for places. The mountain was known variously by a rambling range of names:
- Deodhunga
- Devadhunga
- Bairavathan
- Bhairavlangur
- Gnalthamthangla
- Chomolungma
- Sagarmāthā
- Zhūmùlǎngmǎ Fēng (珠穆朗玛峰).
- Its inspiring scientific name was Peak XV.
So, the name Everest was chosen to lay the matter to rest, forever.
But, there was controversy over its height. Rock or snow height? A monumental 4m difference in the high season. Finally, snow prevailed over rock.
George was buried nowhere near his namesake. He rests in supine serenity, at sea level altitudes, in thick salty air, in south England.
Above: Hove