5 Facts of Nepal

The capital of Nepal is Kathmandu

Nepal is a landlocked country located in south Asia between the countries of India and China. Although Nepal shares a border with China, most of that border is mountinous and strong ties with China have never been formed. Because of the rough and mountinous terrain Nepal remains isolated from the world's major land, air and sea transport routes, contributing to the poor status of the country. Agriculture is by far the largest industry in Nepal, although it does have great potential for tourism. 2011 was declared Nepal Tourism Year officially on January 14, 2011. The year long tourism celebration was anticipated to bring over 1 million tourists to Nepal as well as promoting and improving Nepal tourism moving forward.

5 Facts You Might Not Know

1

Nepal is home to the highest location on earth. Mt. Everest is located on the border of Nepal and Tibet and is estimated at 8850m above sea level and growing! Mt. Everest grows by approimentaly 4mm per year.

2

Nepal is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world with about half its citizens living below the poverty level.. Roughly 80% of Nepal's population depends on agriculture for survival and the average yearly salary is About $1100 (2008 figure).

3

Nepal is the only Hindu country in the world, with 90% of the population being Hindu. Even though Nepal is associated with Buddhism in most peoples minds Buddhists account for just 5% of the population. That being said, Nepalese have embraced both Hinduism and Buddhism and frequently worship in both fashions.

4

Kathmandu is the largest city in Nepal as well as being the capital and has a population of just under 1 million people. This is a fairly small number considering the total population of Nepal is over 26 million people and much of the country is uninhabitable due to the mountinous ranges to the north.

5

There are over 100 recognized languages spoken in Nepal, with Nepali being the most common at 60%. Although Nepal is located in South Asia, the Nepali language has its roots in Indo-Aryan languages, which are related to European languages.