This mountain system in Asia, comprising a series of parallel and converging ranges and forming the highest mountain region in the world. The immense mountain range began to form between 40 and 50 million years ago, when two large landmasses, India and Eurasia, driven by plate movement, collided. The pressure of the impinging plates could only be relieved by thrusting skyward, contorting the collision zone, and forming the jagged Himalayan peaks. More than 30 peaks of the Himalayas rise to heights of 7620 m (25,000 ft) or more, and one of these, Mount Everest (8848 m), is the world’s highest mountain. This Hindu-Kush-Himalaya (HKH) mountain chain extending over 3,500 km in the countries Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, covering an area of about 43 lakh km2. The Himalaya, is an enchantment territory of the nature where the magnificence of the world’s highest mountains is mirrored in the rugged beauty and unique culture of the people who live in their shadow.