Nepal Travel Trek

Nepal is a landlocked country. Sandwiched between two Asian giants—China and India  - Nepal traditionally has been characterized as "a yam caught between two rocks." Noted for its’ majestic Himalayas which in Sanskrit means the abode of snow, Nepal is very mountainous and hilly. Its shape is roughly rectangular, about 800 kilometers long and about 100 to 200 kilometers wide, and comprises a total of 147,181 square kilometers of land. For a small country, Nepal has great physical diversity, ranging from the Tarai Plain -- the northern rim of the Gangetic Plain situated at about 300 meters above sea level in the south -- to the 8848-meter-high Mount Everest, locally known as Sagarmatha (its Nepali name), in the north.
From the lowland Terai belt, landforms rise in successive hill and mountain ranges, including the stupendous rampart of the towering Himalayas, ultimately reaching the Tibetan Plateau beyond the Inner Himalayas. The Terai plain is low in elevation, flat, and fertile, being a northern extension of the Gangetic Plain and is some 26 to 32 km wide. In the south, it is agricultural, and where it joins the foothills, it is marshy and forested. The sparsely populated Churia Hills and the Inner Terai region rise to the rugged Mahabharata Mountain Range, which has elevations of 600-910 m; the intermountain basins are covered with forests.

The mid-mountain region, between the Mahabharata Range and the Great Himalayas, has a complex system of ranges between 2,400 and 4,300 m that enclose the Kathmandu and the Pokhara valleys, two flat basins drained by the Baghmati and Seti rivers, respectively. The densely populated Kathmandu valley is the political and cultural hub of the nation.

The Great Himalayan Range, from 4,300 to 8,800 m in elevation, contains several of the world's highest peaks-Mt. Everest, Kanchenjunga I, Makalu I, Cho Oyo, Dhaulagiri I, Manaslu I, and Annapurna I-all above 8,040 m. The Kosi, Narayani (Gandak), and Karnali rivers run southward through transverse valleys of the Himalayan chain. This rise in elevation is punctuated by valleys situated between mountain ranges. Within this maze of mountains, hills, ridges, and low valleys, elevational (altitudinal) changes resulted in ecological variations. Climatically, it lies in the temperate zone with the added advantage of altitude.

The country is divided into three main geographic regions: Nepal commonly is divided into three broad physiographic areas: the Mountain Region, the Hill Region, and the Tarai Region. All three parallel each other, from east to west, as continuous ecological belts, occasionally bisected by the country's river systems.

Himalayan Region:

 The Mountain Region (called Parbat in Nepali) is situated at 4,000 meters or more above sea level to the north of the Hill Region. The Mountain Region constitutes the central portion of the Himalayan range originating in the Pamirs, a high altitude region of Central Asia. The altitude of this region ranges between 4877 meters and 8848 meters with the snow line running around 48848 meters. It includes 8 of the existing 14 summits in the world, which exceed an altitude of 8000 meters. Its natural landscape includes Mount Everest and the other seven of the world's ten highest peaks, which are the legendary habitat of the mythical creature, the yeti, or abominable snowman. Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) 8848 m, Kangchenjunga - 8586 m, Lhotse - 8516m, Makalu - 8463m, ChoOyo- 8201 m Dhaulagiri - 8167m Manaslu - 8163m, and Annapurna- 8091 m are the attractions and  pride of this region.

Indeed, the region is sparsely populated, and whatever farming activity exists is mostly confined to the low-lying valleys and the river basins, such as the upper Kali Gandaki Valley.
In the early 1990s, pastoralism and trading were common economic activities among mountain dwellers. Because of their heavy dependence on herding and trading, transhumance was widely practiced.

Hill Region:

Situated south of the Mountain Region, the Hill Region (called Pahar in Nepali) is mostly between 1,000 and 4,000 meters in altitude. It includes the Kathmandu Valley, the country's most fertile and urbanized area. Two major ranges of hills, commonly known as the Mahabharat Lekh and Siwalik Range (or Churia Range), occupy the region. Despite its geographical isolation and limited economic potential, the region always has been the political and cultural center of  Nepal with decision-making power centralized in Kathmandu, the nation's capital. Because of immigration from Tibet and India, the hill ranges historically have been the most heavily populated area. Despite heavy out-migration, the Hill Region comprised the largest share of the total population in 1991.

Terai Region:
The word Terai, a term presumed to be derived from Persian, means "damp," and it appropriately describes the region's humid and hot climate. The region was formed and is fed by three major rivers: the Kosi, the Narayani (India's Gandak River), and the Karnali. A region that in the past contained malaria-infested, thick forests, commonly known as char kose jhari (dense forests approximately 12 kilometers wide), the Terai was used as a defensive frontier by Nepalese. In 1991 the Terai served as the country's granary and land resettlement frontier; it became the most coveted internal destination for land-hungry hill peasants. In complete topographic contrast to the Mountain and Hill regions, the Terai Region is a lowland tropical and subtropical belt of flat, alluvial land stretching along the Nepal India border, and paralleling the Hill Region, widening about 26 to 32 kilometers and commencing at about 300 meters above sea level and occupying about 17% of total land area of the country. It is the northern extension of the Gangetic Plain in India. The Terai includes several valleys (dun), such as the Surkhet and Dang valleys in western Nepal, and the Rapti Valley (Chitwan) in central Nepal.
In terms of both farm and forest lands, the Terai has been Nepal’s richest economic region. Overall, Terai residents enjoy a greater availability of agricultural land than do other Nepalese because of the area's generally flat terrain, which is drained and nourished by several rivers.