Claim: The Himalayas' range crosses five countries.

The Himalayas , or Himalaya , -LRB- -LSB- ˌhɪməˈleɪ.ə -RSB- or -LSB- hɪˈmɑːləjə -RSB- -RRB- form a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau .   The Himalayan range has many of the Earth 's highest peaks , including the highest , Mount Everest . The Himalayas include over fifty mountains exceeding 7200 m in elevation , including ten of the fourteen 8000m peaks . By contrast , the highest peak outside Asia -- Aconcagua , in the Andes -- is 6961 m tall .   The Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges , on the north by the Tibetan Plateau , and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain . The Himalayas are distinct from the other great ranges of central Asia , although sometimes the term Himalaya is loosely used to include the Karakoram and some of the other ranges . The Himalayas are spread across five countries : Nepal , India , Bhutan , China and Pakistan , with the first three countries having sovereignty over most of the range . Some of the world 's major rivers , the Indus , the Ganges , and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra , rise in the Himalayas , and their combined drainage basin is home to roughly 600 million people . The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia ; many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism .   Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate , the Himalayan Mountain range runs , west-northwest to east-southeast , in an arc 2400 km long . Its western anchor , Nanga Parbat , lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river . Its eastern anchor , Namcha Barwa , is just west of the great bend of the Tsangpo river . The range varies in width from 400 km in the west to 150 km in the east .