The Kingdom of Nepal situated in the Himalaya is adjoining to Tibet in the North and to India in the South. The capital Kathmandu is situated at 27°42' North and 85°19' South. Its area comprises about 147.000 sq km and is about half the size of Germany. In 1998 they had 23 million inhabitants with about 590.000 of them living in Kathmandu. The head of state is King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.

Nepal has three different kind of landscapes: The Himalaya in the North with eight of the fourteen >8000m peaks in Nepal including the Mount Everest (Nepalese: Sagarmatha [Throne of Gods]). In the heart of Nepal you can find the Tarai highland around Kathmandu about 1000m a.s.l. The people here experience a subtropical climate. In the south of Nepal there is the Mahabharat Range, lowlands with a wet and hot subtropical climate. The difference in altitude in Nepal lies between 70m and 8850m a.s.l.!

Nepal has opened itself to the tourists in 1950. While there were mostly mountaineers and trekkers in the beginning there are more cultural tourists nowadays (almost 400.000 throughout a year). Surprisingly Nepal is said to be the country with the highest density of internet cafés in the world! Their national meal is called Dalbath which is a pilaff with a thick and spicy lentil sauce.

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