MUSEUM POKHARA

Int'l Mountain Museum.

The Himalaya is the greatest mountain system in the world. It stretches 2400 km from east to west between Nanga Parbat and Namcha Barwa peaks. Most find such an immense range of mountains hard to envisage because the scale is beyond one's experience. Cradled among the mountains in the central Himalaya with profusion of high peaks lies the Nepal. Of the fourteen peaks in the world that exceed 8,000 meters no fewer than eight of them are in Nepal, including Mt. Everest the highest in the world. The mystery of the unknown, sheer beauty of majestic peaks and above all, an urge to experience the challenge of climbing world's highest mountains have attracted thousands of climbers to the Himalayan slopes. The first tentative steps towards Himalayan climbing were taken in 1920's, and several expedition teams were able to make important exploration and significant progress in climbing Mt. Everest, Nanga Parbat, K2, and Kanchenjunga. However, it was only after the opening of the Nepal Himalaya, followed by the successful ascents of the first peak over 8000m - Annapurna I by Maurice Herzog and Luis Lachenal in 1950 and Mt. Everest in 1953 by Sherpa Tenzing Norgay and New Zealander Edmund Hillary, the mountaineering activities in the Himalaya started to gain wider popularity. The current work of the IMM project involves phase one of the project. Works in this phase includes the construction and completion of the main Museum Hall building which will house the halls for exhibit display, audio visual hall and conservation room for exhibits. The Museum Hall building covers a total floor area of 4242 sq. meters of the total 12.5 acres of the land owned by the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) for the IMM Project. There will be two main exhibition halls, Hall of the Great Himalaya and Hall of World Mountains. These Halls will have models of famous peaks, mannequins of famous climbers, equipment and material used in mountaineering, culture and life style of mountain peoples, flora and fauna including geologicy.