Seven Summits Posters & Prints
for social studies and geography educators, and home schoolers.

One of the challenges of mountain climbing is to reach the tops of the "Seven Summits", the highest mountains of each of the seven continents of Earth. Because continential boundaries are "flexible", there are nine peaks in the Seven Summits list.

The "Seven Summits" are not the tallest mountains on Earth; the highest mountains peaks in the world are located in Central Asia in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Africa, (19,340 ft/5,895m)

Kilimanjaro (Kilima Njaro - Swahili for "shining mountain"), is the tallest free-standing mountain rise in the world. It is an inactive stratovolcano, however there are concerns about magma build-up, and rapidly retreating glaciers near the summit.

Mount Vinson or Vinson Massif (16,050 ft/4,892 m) is the highest peak in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1957 by a US Navy aircraft and is claimed by Chile.

The word 'massif' is French and means massive; in geology it means a section of the Earth's crust that is 'demarcated by faults or flexures' and is a 'smaller unit than a tectonic plate'.

Mount Erebus is the southermost volcano on Earth.

Mount Kosciuszko (7,310 feet/2,228 m), named for Polish national hero General Tadeusz KoÊciuszko, is on the Australian mainland. It is considered an easy climb.

A more challenging climb is the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the Andes, Puncak Jaya (16,023 ft/4,884 m). Located on the island of New Guinea, Indonesia, it is a part of the continental Australian shelf (Australasia). Europeans originally called it 'Carstensz Pyramid'. (no commercial print available)

Mount Everest (Qomolangma, Sagarmatha, Chomolungma) is the highest mountain on Earth, as measured by the height of its summit above sea level (29,028 ft/8,848 m). Everest is part of the Himalaya range, located on the border between Nepal and China.

• Everest Conquered! Headline poster

Mount Elbrus, a dormant stratovolcano at 18,510 ft/5,642 m, is the highest mountain in Europe, if the border between Europe and Asia is considered to be at the watershed divide of the Caucasus. The Caucasus Mountains are between the Black and the Caspian Seas in the Caucasus region of Eurasia.

Aconcagua, in the Argentinian Andes, is the highest peak outside of Asia (22,841 ft/6,962 m).

The Andes Mountains is the longest mountain range, stretching over 4,400 miles (7,000 km) along the western Pacific Coast of South America. The Andes are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.