A pioneering examination of the three-dimensionality of the earth from the perspective of history and the humanities. This book considers the variegated world of mountains and their development during the last 500 years. It takes as its starting point the United Nations environmental conference of 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, where the mountains were officially recognised as a topic of the world community. Important precedents for this new agenda were built in the early modern period and in the nineteenth century, as European societies began to exceed their traditional limitations. The book begins...

Around the globe there are numerous mountains that have been and continue to be attributed sacredness. Decolonisation and the 'ecological turn' changed the religious power of interpretation and gave discourses about sacred mountains new meaning. Globally, however, they remain an outstanding example of cultural diversity