Mt. Everest is seen from Kathmandu for the first time in living history – and that’s all thanks to COVID-19!
Lockdown Clears the Air
While us, humans, are scrambling to save ourselves amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis has brought something good – the Earth is healing from the effects of human actions. The waters have become clearer, with fish and other water creatures coming back to live in the once brackish waters.
Photo credit: The Nepali Times / Twitter
The air has also become so clear in many highly urbanized cities that were once filled with smog. This led to natural attractions and man-made landmarks from far away being visible for the first time!
As the lockdown clears the air in Kathmandu, Nepal, for example, citizens were greeted with a view of Mt. Everest. It is first time in living history that the world’s tallest mountain could be seen again from Kathmandu, located some 200 km away. Wow.
“The COVID-19 Lockdown has cleaned the air over Nepal and northern India. So much so that for the first time in many years, Mt Everest can be seen again from Kathmandu Valley even though it is 200km away,” tweeted the Nepali Times, with the paper sharing photos taken from the Chobar village in Kathmandu Valley by a resident named Abhushan Gautam.
The photos were taken at dusk, highlighting the beautiful mountains as majestic backdrops to the photo. People were amazed that Mt. Everest and the others in the mountain range could be seen this far.
This is not the first time that photos of the mountains went viral, with residents in India also happily sharing pictures of the mountain range, also something they had seen for the first time. That’s all thanks to the smog-free air due to the lockdown. COVID-19 has brought something good, after all…
How Tall is Mt. Everest?
Mt. Everest is 8,840 m (29,002 ft) high. It is the Earth’s highest mountain above sea level and is located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. Across its summit point is the border between Nepal and China.