Mountain · Australia
Uluru
Uluru is a giant, red sandstone rock rising 348 metres straight out of the flat Australian desert, all on its own. It is one of the most sacred sites for the Anangu people of central Australia.
Picture credit: Thomas Schoch (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Uluru?
You will find it in: Australia.
Summit: 25.345° S, 131.036° E
The story behind it
Uluru is what geologists call an inselberg, or 'island mountain' — a lone lump of extremely tough rock, called arkose, left standing after softer surrounding rock wore away over roughly 500 million years. Most of Uluru is hidden: the rock is thought to continue several kilometres down into the ground, so the visible dome is only a small tip of something much larger. For the Anangu people, Uluru is central to their culture and Tjukurpa, or creation law, with features on its surface tied to ancestral stories passed down for tens of thousands of years. For decades, tourists climbed a chain bolted to its side, against the wishes of the Anangu owners, until Australia permanently closed the climb in October 2019, respecting the site's deep spiritual meaning. Its colour shifts through fiery reds and oranges at sunrise and sunset, as low light strikes tiny iron particles in the rock.
Find it on the globe
Uluru 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.
Questions children ask
How tall is Uluru?
Uluru rises 348 metres above the surrounding desert plain, and reaches 863 metres above sea level in total, since the desert floor itself sits fairly high up.
Where is Uluru?
Uluru sits in the Northern Territory of central Australia, inside Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, hundreds of kilometres from any city or coastline, deep in the outback desert.
Can you still climb Uluru?
No. Climbing was permanently banned in October 2019 out of respect for the Anangu people, who consider Uluru sacred. Visitors now walk around its base instead.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
Last checked: