List of countries whose highest point is not on the mainland

This is a list of countries whose highest point is not on the mainland, i.e. sovereign states whose highest natural elevation lies on an island, an overseas territory or another non-contiguous part of the country, rather than on the country's principal landmass.

Whether a country belongs on this list depends on how the country is defined. The list below therefore distinguishes between: countries whose highest point lies outside the mainland but within the country's integral territory (e.g. Spain, whose highest peak Teide is in the Canary Islands) countries whose highest point lies in a dependent, autonomous or overseas territory (e.g. the Kingdom of Denmark, whose highest peak Gunnbjørn Fjeld is in Greenland) countries whose claim depends on a territorial claim in Antarctica, which is held in abeyance under the Antarctic Treaty System (e.g. Norway and New Zealand)

New surveys occasionally change a country's highest point. A 2017 re-measurement by the British Antarctic Survey established Mount Hope as the highest peak in territory claimed by the United Kingdom, and a 2024 survey lowered Mount Scenery, the highest point of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, by seven metres.

A counter-example is the United States: its highest point, Denali, lies in Alaska, which is separated from the contiguous United States by Canada but is still part of the continental United States, on the North American mainland.

Highest point within integral territory

Country Highest point Elevation Location Highest point on the mainland Elevation Pico Basilé Bioko island unnamed point in the interior plateau of Río Muni c. Mount Kinabalu Sabah, Borneo Mount Tahan Mount Scenery Saba, Caribbean Netherlands Vaalserberg Mount Pico Pico Island, Azores Torre Hallasan Jeju Island Jirisan Teide Tenerife, Canary Islands Mulhacén

Highest point in a dependent or overseas territory

Country Highest point Elevation Location Highest point on the mainland Elevation Mawson Peak Heard Island (external territory) Mount Kosciuszko Gunnbjørn Fjeld Greenland (autonomous territory of the Danish Realm) Møllehøj Mount Paget South Georgia (British Overseas Territory) Ben Nevis

Highest point in a claimed Antarctic territory

Territorial claims in Antarctica are not universally recognised and are held in abeyance under the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. Without their claims, the highest points of Norway and New Zealand are on the mainland.

Country Highest point Elevation Location Highest point on the mainland Elevation Dome Argus Australian Antarctic Territory (claimed) Mount Kosciuszko Mount Kirkpatrick Ross Dependency (claimed) Aoraki / Mount Cook Jøkulkyrkja Queen Maud Land (claimed) Galdhøpiggen Mount Hope British Antarctic Territory (claimed) Ben Nevis

Other territorial claims

Territorial claims outside Antarctica seldom change the identity of a country's highest point. The main exception in this list is South Korea, whose constitution defines its territory as "the Korean peninsula and its adjacent islands". Under that claim its highest point would be Paektu Mountain () on the mainland border between North Korea and China, rather than Hallasan on Jeju Island.

Other claims have no such effect. India claims Gilgit-Baltistan, administered by Pakistan, where K2 () would replace Kangchenjunga () as the country's highest point, but both peaks stand on the Asian mainland. Argentina claims South Georgia, where Mount Paget is far below Aconcagua () on the Argentine mainland.

Countries with transcontinental mainland

A related but distinct situation arises in transcontinental countries, whose highest point may lie in a different continent from most of their territory while still being on a contiguous mainland. Their highest points are on the mainland under the definition used in this article, but continent-restricted lists, such as the list of highest points of European countries, treat several of them as special cases:

Turkey's highest point, Mount Ararat (), lies in Anatolia in Asia, while its European part (East Thrace) rises only to about at Mahya Dağı, the summit of the Yıldız Mountains. Kazakhstan is situated primarily in Central Asia, but about 4% of its territory, west of the Ural River, lies in Eastern Europe. Its highest point, Khan Tengri (, including its ice cap), stands in the Tian Shan in Asia, while the European portion is low-lying steppe. Egypt's highest point, Mount Catherine (), lies on the Sinai Peninsula, which is conventionally placed in Asia, while the rest of the country is in Africa. Russia is the converse case: although about three quarters of its territory is in Asia, its highest point, Mount Elbrus (), is also the highest point of Europe. The highest summit of its Asian part is Klyuchevskaya Sopka on the Kamchatka Peninsula, at about . Georgia and Azerbaijan are similar converse cases. Their highest points, Shkhara () and Bazardüzü (), lie on the main crest of the Greater Caucasus, whose watershed is a common convention for the Europe–Asia boundary. That convention conditionally places both summits in geographical Europe, while most of the territory of the two countries lies south of the crest, in Asia. Indonesia, an archipelago without a mainland, is conventionally an Asian country, yet its highest point, Puncak Jaya (), lies on New Guinea, which is geographically part of Oceania. Its highest peak in Asia is Mount Kerinci () on Sumatra.

See also List of elevation extremes by country List of islands by highest point Lists of highest points List of enclaves and exclaves

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