Mount Elbrus

Where is Mount Elbrus?

Mount Elbrus is part of the Caucasus Mountains.

You will find it in: Russia.

Summit: 43.355° N, 42.439° E

The story behind it

Elbrus is a dormant volcano with two summits, formed by molten rock rising along a crack in the Earth's crust where the Caucasus mountains were squeezed up between two tectonic plates. Scientists believe it could erupt again someday, though its last eruption was roughly 2,000 years ago. Local Balkar and Karachay communities have lived in villages around its base for centuries, herding sheep on the lower slopes. Because chairlifts and cable cars now carry climbers partway up, Elbrus is one of the easiest of the Seven Summits technically, though brutal winds and sudden whiteout storms still kill climbers most years. Here's a surprising twist: the western summit, at 5,642 metres, is the official highest point, but it was actually climbed 45 years after the slightly lower eastern summit, which a local guide named Khillar Khashirov reached all the way back in 1829.

Find it on the globe

Mount Elbrus is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.