The Roof of the World or Top of the World is a metaphoric epithet or phrase used to describe some of the highest regions in the world. The term usually refers to all or part of High-mountain Asia, the continent's mountainous interior, including the Pamirs, the Himalayas, the Tibetan Plateau, the Hindu Kush, the Tian Shan, the country of Nepal, and the Altai Mountains.
Attested usage The British explorer John Wood, writing in 1838, described Bam-i-Duniah (Roof of the World) as a "native expression" (presumably Wakhi),Keay, John (1983) When Men and Mountains Meet ; p. 153 and it was generally used for the Pamirs in Victorian times: In 1876, another British traveler, Sir Thomas Edward Gordon, employed it as the title of a bookSir Thomas Edward Gordon, The Roof of the World: being a narrative of a journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian frontier and the Oxus sources on Pamir, Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1876 and wrote in Chapter IX:
Older encyclopedias also used "Roof of the World" to describe the Pamirs: Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. (1911): "PAMIRS, a mountainous region of central Asia...the Bam-i-Dunya ('The Roof of the World')". The Columbia Encyclopedia, 1942 edition: "the Pamirs (Persian = roof of the world)".The Columbia Encyclopedia; 1942 edition, p. 1335 Hachette, 1890: , French for "Roof of the World (Pamir)".Guillaume Capus (1890), , Paris: Hachette et Cie. = Bibliographia Marmotarum. Ramousse R., International Marmot Network, Lyon, 1997. Guillaume Capus , Leipzig 1928–1935: (German: "roof of the world, term describing the Pamir highlands"),, 15th ed., Leipzig 1928–1935, vol. 4 (1929), p. 319. and (in translation): "Pamir highlands, the nodal point of the mountain systems of Tien-Shan, Kun-lun, Karakoram, the Himalayas and Hindukush, and therefore called the roof of the world.", vol. 14 (1933), p. 96.
With the awakening of public interest in Tibet, the Pamirs, "since 1875 ... probably the best explored region in High Asia", went out of the limelight and the description "Roof of the World" has been increasingly applied to Tibet and the Tibetan Plateau, and occasionally, especially in French (), even to Mount Everest,. but the traditional use is still alive.The Pamirs, a region known to locals as Pomir – "the roof of the world".
See also Four continents Seven Seas Mount Imeon High-mountain Asia
References Tibet is commonly known as Roof of the world, click for detail about Tibet