10 Incredibly High Towns & Cities Around The World (PHOTOS)

Have you ever been so high up in the mountains that you take a deep breath and it feels like you don't have any oxygen left at all?

One of the most amazing things about travel is seeing where and how human beings have adapted to a huge variety of conditions, including sky-high elevations over 2 miles above sea level.

The people In these 10 human settlements, from capital cities to remote villages, from the Himalayas to the Andes, live life at astonishing heights.

 

Have you been to a spectacularly high town or city somewhere in the world? Send us pictures!

Find a picture, click the participate button, add a title and upload your picture

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La Rinconada, Peru (16,728 ft): National Geographic Magazine's Highest City In The World

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Comments

[Ramkshrestha]

06:34 AM on 11/19/2010

All of them wonderful.

[Tumunzahar]

01:07 AM on 11/19/2010

The highlight of Namche Bazaar is the guest house with a sign announcing that Dianne Feinstein stayed there.

[tploomis]

10:43 PM on 11/18/2010

Rongbuk Monastery in Tibet on the north slope of Mt Everest is at 5100 meters (16728 feet). It is small for a town, but there are permanent inhabitants that live there year round. It's also gorgeous.

[UncleJimbo]

10:11 PM on 11/18/2010

At 7,199 Ft. Sante Fe is the highest State Capital in the US!.....

[Kingbreaker]

09:40 PM on 11/18/2010

I dunno about sheer altitude but Tehran has an absolutely beautiful mountain backdrop.

[Danilo-11]

08:27 PM on 11/18/2010

People cry about Denver's altitude (5000 ft). To qualify to the World Cup. All South American countries play each other (home & away) and one of those games is playing Bolivia in La Paz at 12,000ft above sea level.

[SolarPowerGuy]

07:22 PM on 11/18/2010

"10 Incredibly High Towns & Cities Around The World..."

And Kingston, Jamaica is not on this list? Nor Amsterdam? Nor hippie San Francisco?

...oh, wait.

[slackgeek]

02:59 PM on 11/20/2010

ha!! funny!

[NHGranite]

06:33 PM on 11/21/2010

We got fooled again@!
I think I saw OBL in picture #8

[Josh Sezer]

06:21 PM on 11/18/2010

I remember reading about this silver mining town in Argentina. When the Spanish found out there was silver, well they decided a silly typical South American mountain wasn't good enough for their silver capital. So they completely rebuilt in the style of a town from Spain. Problem is, when you have wide streets in the mountains, well it gets fairly cold.

[Montaignelover]

06:05 PM on 11/18/2010

I really need to go to Lasal (sp?). That temple looked nice, and I'm sure the monks there would love nothing more than a visit from an obnoxious American dude. I would introduce them to Miles Davis, and they would say, "Y'all ain't so bad!"
I've been to Cuzco and Leadville. I expected the first,forgot about the second.

[Ditchmonkey]

04:14 PM on 11/18/2010

Gee HP sure went through a lot of trouble to get a photo of Leadville :D

There are a bunch of Leadville photos here: http://www.westernmininghistory.com/gallery/709/modern/towns/

[NHGranite]

06:35 PM on 11/21/2010

Nice.

[Durango]

04:14 PM on 11/18/2010

Is Silverton Colorado the highest town in the Colorado River Basin?

Much prefer it to Leadville.

[Open source intelligence]

03:12 PM on 11/18/2010

I've been to Namche, Lhasa and Leadville but my personal favorite mountain city is Darjeeling. What a magical place!

[DessLoch]

03:59 PM on 11/18/2010

The view from my cubicle sighs 'someday Dess, someday..."

[msjimmied]

11:41 PM on 11/18/2010

How about Shimla? Spent a decade in boarding school there, decades ago...Magical is the word. It was a lot less crowded then. I don't think I want to go back and see how "progress" has ruined it.

[tophers402]

03:10 PM on 11/18/2010

Expected Boulder, Co., got Peru. Ohhhhhhh.

[Montana 123]

03:37 PM on 11/18/2010

No way. Boulder is only at about 5430. Actually Alma, CO is higher than Leadville.

http://www.maps-n-stats.com/us_co_elevation.html

[Durango]

04:14 PM on 11/18/2010

Fairplay.

[gizmoturner]

05:05 PM on 11/18/2010

Alma is higher, but is not a city. Leadville is a city with about 3000 in population. Alma is a spot on the road.

[josephbua]

01:46 PM on 11/18/2010

Oh. THAT kind of high. I clicked over for nothing. DAMN!

[Cutiepieblue]

02:35 PM on 11/18/2010

Ha I was thinking the same thing!!

[imusintheevening]

03:24 PM on 11/18/2010

I think those cities is Nepal and Bolivia make that list, too!