page_title: Pico das Agulhas Negras
section_title: Elevation measurements
hierarchical_section_title: Pico das Agulhas Negras / Elevation measurements
caption_attribution_description: Português: Pico das Agulhas Negras no Parque Nacional do Itatiaia, Rio de Janeiro. por Henrique Boney
context_page_description: Pico das Agulhas Negras is the fifth-highest mountain in Brazil, standing at 2,791 metres above sea level, making it one of the highest in the Brazilian Highlands. It is located in Itatiaia National Park, in the Serra da Mantiqueira range, on the border of the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais. It is the highest point in the state of Rio de Janeiro, the third-highest peak in Minas Gerais, and the second-highest in the Mantiqueira range.
  The climb to the top was first attempted by Franklin Massena in 1856. Further attempts were made by André Rebouças in 1878 and by Horácio de Carvalho in 1898, but the summit was only reached in 1919, by Carlos Spierling and Osvaldo Leal.
context_section_description: For years, Pico das Agulhas Negras was thought to be the highest mountain in Brazil. The title later went to Pico da Bandeira, in the Caparaó range between the states of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo (now known to be at 2,891 metres (9,485 ft)). In 1965, it was found that Pico da Neblina, in the state of Amazonas, was, in fact, the highest, with a currently revised height of 2,995 metres (9,826 ft).
  Even then, Pico das Agulhas Negras was still thought to be the highest point in the Mantiqueira Mountains, until a 2001 GPS measurement (later confirmed by an official joint expedition of the Brazilian Army and the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics - IBGE) showed that nearby Pedra da Mina was that mountain range's highest point at 2,798 metres (9,180 ft), about seven metres higher than Agulhas Negras. Pedra da Mina was higher even though Agulhas Negras was also found to be slightly higher than previously thought, at 2,791.55 metres (9,158.6 ft), rather than its previous official altitude of 2,787 metres (9,144 ft). Pico das Agulhas Negras remains the highest point in Rio de Janeiro state.
  In 2015, IBGE completed a new and more accurate mapping of the Brazilian territory regarding the geoid, the irregular imaginary surface based on the Earth's gravitational field that is the reference for altitude measurements. This led the institution to recalculate the altitude of the mountains measured in the earlier project, according to the new reference. The new data were published in February 2016. Pico das Agulhas Negras was then found to stand at 2,790.94 metres (9,156.6 ft), a difference of 61 cm or about two feet.
caption: Tourist information signs in Itatiaia National Park close to Pico das Agulhas Negras, with the peak in the background.
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