Determination of new national highpoints of five African and Asian countries, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo
📝 Abstract
Not all nations on earth have previously been surveyed accurately enough to know for certain which peak is the national highpoint, the highest peak in the country. Knowledge of these peaks is important for understanding the physical geography of these countries in terms of natural resource availability, watershed management, and tourism potential. For this study, ground surveys were conducted between 2018-2025 with modern professional surveying equipment, including differential GPS units and Abney levels, to accurately determine the national highpoints in five African and Asian countries where uncertainty existed. New national highpoints were determined for Saudi Arabia (Jabal Ferwa), Uzbekistan (Alpomish), Gambia (Sare Firasu Hill), Guinea-Bissau (Mt Ronde), and Togo (Mt Atilakoutse). Elevations were measured with sub-meter vertical accuracy for candidate peaks in Saudi Arabia, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo. Relative elevations were measured between contender peaks in Uzbekistan with sufficient accuracy to determine the highpoint.
💡 Analysis
Not all nations on earth have previously been surveyed accurately enough to know for certain which peak is the national highpoint, the highest peak in the country. Knowledge of these peaks is important for understanding the physical geography of these countries in terms of natural resource availability, watershed management, and tourism potential. For this study, ground surveys were conducted between 2018-2025 with modern professional surveying equipment, including differential GPS units and Abney levels, to accurately determine the national highpoints in five African and Asian countries where uncertainty existed. New national highpoints were determined for Saudi Arabia (Jabal Ferwa), Uzbekistan (Alpomish), Gambia (Sare Firasu Hill), Guinea-Bissau (Mt Ronde), and Togo (Mt Atilakoutse). Elevations were measured with sub-meter vertical accuracy for candidate peaks in Saudi Arabia, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo. Relative elevations were measured between contender peaks in Uzbekistan with sufficient accuracy to determine the highpoint.
📄 Content
1 Introduction:
The location of the highest peak in a country is a source of geographic significance and national pride. Most, but not all, countries have been surveyed accurately enough to determine the location and elevation of the highest peak. Knowing this information is important for economic, cultural, geographic, and climatological reasons. For instance, on average 60,000 climbers and trekkers visit the Mount Everest region of Nepal each year, contributing millions of dollars to the local economy (SNP 2025). In Japan, over 300,000 people annually climb Mt Fuji (Fuji 2025). National highpoints often hold cultural significance, such as Mt Olympus in Greece, which was the mythological home of the gods and is now a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Knowing accurate information about high peaks in a country can also inform decisions on natural resource management, as these peaks are often in major watershed areas (Dennedy-Frank et al. 2024). Many climate models depend on knowing accurate mountain elevations (Mountain Research 2015).
Satellite-based elevation measurements exist for all countries on earth, but measurement errors are still high enough to be significant in determining which of a collection of potential national highpoints is the highest. In February 2000, the satellite-based Shuttle Range Topography Mission (SRTM) collected elevation data at discrete points between 56 degrees south and 60 degrees north latitude at 1 arcsecond spacing (approximately 30m) with reported vertical accuracy +/-16m (Smith 2023). Elevations of locations between measured points have been approximated by different Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). However, the error bounds of elevations of locations between measured points is unknown and can potentially be higher than +/-16m, especially for sharp peaks (Sandip 2013).
Airplane-or drone-based LiDAR measurements can achieve vertical errors less than +/-0.3m (ASPRS 2004) but have only been conducted in a limited number of locations around the world. Traditional theodolite-based ground surveys have been conducted in most countries; however error bounds are often not reported in elevation measurements or on topographic maps. Sometimes different theodolite-based ground surveys resulted in different elevations for the same peak, adding to uncertainty. In other instances, some but not all, of the highest peaks in a country were surveyed, resulting in unsurveyed peaks with approximate but unknown elevations on topographic maps. Differential GPS units have been used since the 1990s to measure elevations with vertical errors less than +/-0.03m (Schrock 2011). This measurement method generally requires a unit to be mounted in a fixed location for at least one hour. Measurements with these units have been used to determine elevations of national highpoints of countries including France/Italy (Vincent et al. 2007, Berthier et al. 2023), China/Nepal (Junyong 2005), Pakistan (Lehmuller 2015), Peru (Huascaran 2017), USA (Wagner 2015), the Dominican Republic (Geospatial 2021), and Lithuania (Krupick 2007).
There is only one previous instance where ambiguity in the location of a national highpoint was resolved with modern surveying methods like differential GPS. In 2018 differential GPS measurements were used to discover that the national highpoint of Sweden had switched from the southern summit of Kebnekaise to the northern summit (Holmlund 2019). This switch occurred because the southern summit of Kebnekaise, an icecapped summit, melted down enough that the northern, rocky summit became the true country highpoint.
Prior to this study, there existed 14 countries in the world with ambiguous national highpoints, located in South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. These countries had not previously been surveyed accurately enough to definitively determine the locations and elevations of the national highpoints. The countries are Colombia, Botswana, Benin, Myanmar, Marshall Islands, Maldives, Zambia, Guyana, the Federated States of Micronesia, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo.
Between 2018 and 2025 the authors conducted ground surveys using differential GPS units and Abney levels to definitively determine the national highpoints in five of these countries: Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo (Figure 1). This paper describes the measurement methodology, analysis of results, and comparison to satellite-based measurements and previous ground surveys for each of these five countries. For each country, a new highpoint was identified that was different than the previously-accepted national highpoint.
Section 1 presents background information summarizing historical survey data for the candidate highpoints in the five countries. Section 2 describes the methods used to conduct surveys from 2018-2025, Section 3 presents the results, and Section 4 summarizes the findings.
The authors have additionally conducted surveys in Colombia in 2024, and that is the
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