Welcome to the Park of the Month newsletter for November 2025. This month’s park is home to the tallest mountain in the world.
Sagarmatha National Park
Location
Himalayas of Eastern Nepal
Claim to fame
Though many people around the globe are familiar with Mount Everest, few know the name of the park that protects it. Sagarmatha National Park was established in 1976 to safeguard Mount Everest and nearby mountains as well as the endangered species and Sherpa culture of the region. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is bordered by a protective buffer zone and several other national parks, all of which preserve one of the most unique places on Earth.
Reason to visit
Sagarmatha National Park attracts around 50,000 foreign tourists a year, and most of them are drawn to its main attraction: Mount Everest. Every year hundreds of people attempt to climb the mountain, which at 29,029 ft (8848 meters) is the tallest mountain on Earth.
Sagarmatha is dominated by massive mountains. 69% of the park sits at over 5,000 meters (16,000 ft), including seven mountains over 7,000 meters (23,000 ft) high. These mountains are home to over 1,000 species of flora, 208 birds species, and several rare or even endangered mammals, like snow leopards and the red panda.
Wild Fact
Sagarmatha is the Nepalese name for Mount Everest. “Sagarmatha” is derived from the Nepali words “sagar” meaning sky and “matha” meaning head. To the Nepalese, the mountain is the “forehead of the sky.”
Instead of keeping the local name, the British government named Mount Everest in honor of Sir George Everest, who had acted as Surveyor General of India on their behalf. Everest himself was opposed to the mountain being named for him, declaring that it could not be easily written nor pronounced by the people of India. Today many people around the world call the mountain Everest, though the government and people of Nepal refer to it as Sagarmatha.
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