Puncak Jaya, Indonesia

Credit: Image obtained from the University of Maryland Global Land Cover Facility, Posted on: Sunday, 29 August 2004, 06:00 CDT Download full size image

The Seven Summits are the highest peaks on each of the Earth’s seven continents. However, there is some debate about whether to count Australia, Australia and New Zealand, or Oceania (which adds the Pacific Islands and the Indonesian archipelago). If one uses Oceania as one of the continents, then the tallest peak is Puncak Jaya, also known as Carstenz’s Pyramid. Its peak at 4884 m (16024 ft) puts it well above both Australia’s Mt. Kosciuszko and New Zealand’s Aoraki/Mt. Cook. Located in the Papau province of Indonesia (formerly known as Irian Jaya), the peak is in the midst of the 2500 km long Pegunungan Maoke, or Central Range, of the island of New Guinea. Its anglicized name comes from the Dutch navigator Jan Carstenz who first surveyed the peak from coastline in 1623 on a rare clear day. When Indonesia took control of the province in the 1960s, the peak was renamed Puncak Jaya (Victory Peak).

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