to name the mountain after the previous leader of the Survey, Sir George Everest.
When George Everest heard, however, that this colossus of a mountain had been named after him, he was not honored at all. Rather, he was embarrassed. George had spent so much of his life on the Survey team in India that he felt all discoveries should maintain their native names and not have names of English language origins thrown onto them. Though we now know that the mountain had a native name at the time of its discovery by the British (two in fact!), they didn’t know of these names at the time. Not only did they not know of them, but the Nepalese banned the Survey team from entering their country! With no known native name, and despite his fear that the natives wouldn’t be able to say his name, George Everest stopped fighting against it and let the mountain be called Mount Everest. Poor George died around a year after the mountain was named after him and we don’t know if he even got to see it with his own eyes.
K2
From the biggest mountain in the world to the second biggest mountain in the world. While it might get overshadowed by Everest, being the second best is still pretty good though, right? But how did such a feat of nature end up with such a human, unnatural, almost robotic, name?
K2 is located on the China-Pakistan border and once again we have a British Surveyor to thank for its name. This time it’s a man by the name of T.G. Montgomerie who was exploring the Karakoram Mountain Range, and as he surveyed mountains he numerically named them, adding a K before their number to reference the fact he was in the Karakoram Mountain Range. With K2 being the second mountain he recorded, it was that name that stuck with it to this very day!
However, as with Mt. Everest, there are other native names for this mountain too. In China, the mountain is called Qogir which means “white goddess,” and in Pakistan it is called Chogori meaning “tall majestic.” Another name that the mountain is most known by is “the Savage Mountain” due to the high amount of fatalities that have occurred while among those trying to traverse the mountain. There have only been around 300 successful summits of K2, but while that might seem like a lot, over 7,000 people have reached the summit of Everest! K2 has taken over seventy lives, the second most of any mountain. So it’s the second tallest, second most fatal, and second to be surveyed. Poor K2, always getting silver.
And yes there is a K1, and a K3, K4, and K5 for that matter! Yet K2 is the one that has gone down in infamy.
TAJ MAHAL
The Taj Mahal was not only constructed by the hands of 20,000 workers, but also with the assistance of 1,000 elephants! All those hands (and trunks) went into building one of the most impressive and beautiful buildings on this planet. In fact, it was deemed so beautiful that one legend tells us the architects had their hands cut off once the building was complete, so they couldn’t construct anything more beautiful.
Its construction was finished in 1653, making it over 350 years old! Unfortunately, a clear etymology has been lost, but some ideas and myths live on as to how this palace got its name. One of the more common stories is that the building was constructed as a mausoleum for one of the wives of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, Mumtaz Mahal, who died giving birth to their fourteenth child. She was Shah’s third and favorite wife, said to be of extreme beauty and forever devoted to her emperor husband. Her death hit him hard. With a broken heart and an empire at his fingertips, the Taj Mahal was constructed for her, as an ode to his love, with the mausoleum still bearing her name today.
The second story behind the buildings name is not as romantic (or polygamous for that matter). It’s also thought that the name comes from the Persian language. In that the word Taj means “crown” and Mahal means “place” so Taj Mahal together would mean “the Crown Place.” Like I said, it’s nowhere near as exciting.
If we return to the myth that the architects’ hands were cut off after the completion of the building, what’s interesting about this is there was a similar tale in Russia. Legend has it that Ivan the Terrible blinded the architects of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, so they wouldn’t create anything more beautiful either. While not about names, I just thought I’d mention it if any of you were considering a career in architecture. I’m sure the salary and pension are great, just maybe consider that the loss of body parts could be a real possibility.
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