The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.57

v1.c15.57

Darjeeling is about seven thousand feet above sea-level, on an east and west ridge, with the plains to the south and the gorge of the Rangīt river to the north. In the early morning, in fortunate weather, the visitor may gaze northward upon one of the most glorious scenes in the world. Over the deep valley at his feet, still dark in the shade, and over successive ridge tops beyond, rises the mighty snow range of the Himālayas, fifty miles away, with the peak of Kinchinjunga, more than five miles high, dominating the landscape. Behind Kinchinjunga, a little to the west, and visible from Tiger hill, near Darjeeling, though not from Darjeeling itself, is Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world, more than five and a half miles high. Across the vast chasm and bare granite summits in the foreground, the glittering wall of white mountains seems to hang in the sky as though belonging to another world. The broad distance, and the sudden leap to supreme height, give to the scene a mysterious and almost visionary grandeur. It is, however, only occasionally that the culminating peaks can be seen, for they are often veiled in cloud.