A Mountain of Mountains

1832 Illustration by John Dower that shows the tallest mountains in the world, arranged into a mountain and divided by location. The Illustration is titled A View of the Comparative Lengths of the Principal Rivers, and Heights of the Principal Mountains in the World. Original image source.

Check out this illustration from 1832 of the Principal Mountains in the World. It was drawn by John Dower, and it organizes the world’s mountains into a set of mountains, each from a different region in the world. The full title is A View of the Comparative Lengths of the Principal Rivers, and Heights of the Principal Mountains in the World. There are five ‘peaks’, including the British Isles, Africa, Europe, America and Asia. These are ordered from lowest to highest, and they are superimposed on top of one another. This makes it quite simple to compare relative heights across continents, and to understand where the highest peaks are in relation to one another.

One glaring omission is at the top of the heap. The illustration identifies Mount Dhaulagiri as the tallest in the world, which is currently the seventh tallest mountain in the world. This shows that the study of mountains was still developing at the time, and summits such as Everest or K2 hadn’t been discovered yet. Therefore, it’s not really an omission at all, but rather a lack of available data. There’s also the curious isolation of the British Isles, most likely because the piece was printed in London. Normally these mountains would’ve been part of Europe, but because they form a separate peak, they do a good job of filling out the lower region of the work.

Detail of the above illustration, showing the top peaks in the world.

I love studying these types of illustrations because they give us a window into a subject from a time long gone. In the world of 1832, the tallest mountain in the world wasn’t the actual tallest, it was just the tallest of those discovered at the time. Little quirks like this give works such as this a richness and a context that make it all the more interesting.

Check out other height lineups related to the history of the world’s tallest building.