Mount Everest Is Not the Farthest Point from Earth’s Center.

While Mount Everest is the highest point above global mean sea level, it is not the farthest point from Earth’s center — that honor goes to Ecuador’s Mount Chimborazo. How can this be? Since Earth is not a perfect sphere, our planet is slightly thicker around the Equator due to the centrifugal force created by the Earth’s constant rotation. Because Mount Chimborazo is located just 1 degree south of the Equator, where Earth’s bulge is greatest, the mountain is actually over 2,072 meters farther from the center of the Earth than the top of Mount Everest, making Mount Chimborazo the closest point on Earth to the stars.