Puncak Jaya << PUN chahk JAH yuh >> is the highest mountain in the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia. Located in the remote Sudirman Range in the western part of the island of New Guinea, Puncak Jaya is also the highest mountain in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The barren rock mountain is a popular climbing destination. The name Puncak Jaya is Indonesian for Victory Peak. The mountain is also called Carstensz Pyramid after Dutch navigator and explorer Jan Carstensz, who, in 1623, was the first European to see it.
Puncak Jaya rises 16,024 feet (4,884 meters) above sea level, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) west of Timika, the nearest city. The mountain contains sheer walls and drops of more than 1,900 feet (580 meters). Despite its tropical location near the equator, Puncak Jaya has several glaciers on its slopes. However, slightly warmer temperatures and associated changes in rain and snow patterns over about the last 150 years have severely affected the glaciers. Today, they are rapidly melting, and some have disappeared completely.
Surrounding Puncak Jaya is Lorentz National Park. The park was named a World Heritage Site in 1999. Such sites are places of unique cultural or natural importance designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 1962, a team led by the Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer became the first people to climb Puncak Jaya’s highest peak.
