Kathmandu in the context of "Madhyapur Thimi"

The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,962 people and injured 21,952 across the countries of Nepal, India, China and Bangladesh. It occurred at 11:56 Nepal Standard Time on Saturday 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of M_w 7.8–7.9 or M_s 8.1 and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (Extreme). Its epicenter was east of Gorkha District at Barpak, Gorkha, roughly 85 km (53 mi) northwest of central Kathmandu, and its hypocenter was at a depth of approximately 8.2 km (5.1 mi). It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since the 1934 Nepal–India earthquake. The ground motion recorded in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, was of low frequency, which, along with its occurrence at an hour when many people in rural areas were working outdoors, decreased the loss of human lives.

The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 22 people, the deadliest incident on the mountain on record. The earthquake triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where 250 people were reported missing.

Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, and India to the south, east, and west, while it is narrowly separated from Bangladesh by the Siliguri Corridor, and from Bhutan by the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the world's ten highest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point above mean sea level on Earth. Kathmandu is the nation's capital and its largest city. Nepal is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural state, with Nepali as the official language.

The name "Nepal" is first recorded in texts from the Vedic period of the Indian subcontinent, the era in ancient Nepal when Hinduism was founded, the predominant religion of the country. In the middle of the first millennium BC, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet. The centrally located Kathmandu Valley is intertwined with the culture of Indo-Aryans, and was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala. The Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valley's traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture. By the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, under its Rana dynasty of premiers. The country was never colonised but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and British India. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951 but was twice suspended by Nepalese monarchs, in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War in the 1990s and early 2000s resulted in the establishment of a secular republic in 2008, ending the world's last Hindu monarchy. The Constitution of Nepal, adopted in 2015, affirms the country as a federal parliamentary republic divided into seven provinces. In September 2025, protests against a social media ban and economic inequality caused riots, resulting in casualties and resignation of the prime minister.

Pokhara (Nepali: पोखरा [ˈpokʰʌɾa]) is a metropolitan city located in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. Named the country's "capital of tourism" it is the second largest city after Kathmandu, with 600,051 inhabitants living in 120,594 households as of 2021 census.

Pokhara is located 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, on the shore of Phewa Lake, and sits at an average elevation of approximately 822 m above sea level. The Annapurna Range, with three out of the ten highest peaks in the world—Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu—is within 15–35 mi (24–56 km) aerial range from the valley.

This is a list of national capitals ordered by elevation. Higher elevations typically have social, economic, and architectural effects on cities, in particular colder temperatures in winter. Low elevation cities are often seaports or are close to the sea.

The first country on the main list, Bolivia, is a country with multiple capitals; La Paz is the seat of the government while Sucre is the constitutional capital.

The Sherpa people (Standard Tibetan: ཤར་པ།, romanized: shar pa) are a Tibetan ethnic group native to the mountainous regions of Nepal, India, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China.Most Sherpas live in eastern Nepal: the provinces of Bagmati (mainly in the districts of Dolakha, Sindhupalchok and Rasuwa) and Koshi (mainly in the districts of Solukhumbu, Sankhuwasabha and Taplejung). Some live north of Kathmandu, in the Bigu and Helambu regions. They can also be found in Tingri County, Bhutan, and the Indian states of Sikkim and northern West Bengal (the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts). Sherpas establish monasteries known as gompas in these regions, where they follow their local traditions. Tengboche was the first celibate monastery in Solu-Khumbu.

The Sherpa language is part of the southern branch of the Tibeto-Burman languages, mixed with eastern (Khams Tibetan) and central Tibetan dialects. This language is separate from Lhasa Tibetan, and is unintelligible to Lhasa speakers.

Cities and towns in Nepal are incorporated under municipality. A municipality in Nepal is a sub-unit of a district. The Government of Nepal has set-out a minimum criteria for municipalities. These criteria include a certain population, infrastructure and revenues. Presently, there are 293 municipalities in Nepal among which 6 are metropolis, 11 are sub-metropolis and 276 are municipal councils. Other than that there are 460 rural municipalities totaling 753 local level government within Nepal.

Kathmandu, the capital, is also the largest city. In terms of area, Pokhara is the largest metropolitan city covering a subtotal of 464.28 km while Lalitpur is the smallest, with an area of 36.12 km. Ghorahi is the largest sub-metropolitan city with an area of 522.21 km where as Dhangadhi is the largest sub-metropolitan city by a population of 204,788. Budhanilkantha with a population of 179,688 is the largest municipality followed by Birendranagar with a population of 154,886. In terms of area, Sitganga is the largest municipality with an area of 610.43 square kilometres (235.69 sq mi).

The Kathmandu Valley (Nepali: काठमाडौं उपत्यका), also known as the Nepal Valley or Nepa Valley (Nepali: नेपाः उपत्यका, Nepal Bhasa: 𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑑅 𑐐𑐵𑑅, नेपाः गाः), National Capital Area, is a bowl-shaped valley located in the Himalayan mountains of Nepal. It lies at the crossroads of ancient civilizations of the Indian subcontinent and the broader Asian continent, and has at least 130 important monuments, including several pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists. The valley holds seven World Heritage Sites within it.

The Kathmandu Valley is the most developed and the largest urban agglomeration in Nepal with a population of about 5 million people. The urban agglomeration of Kathmandu Valley includes the cities of Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Changunarayan, Budhanilkantha, Tarakeshwar, Gokarneshwar, Suryabinayak, Tokha, Kirtipur, Madhyapur Thimi, and others. The majority of offices and headquarters are located in the valley, making it the economic hub of Nepal. It is popular with tourists for its unique architecture, and rich culture which includes the highest number of jatras (festivals) in Nepal. Kathmandu Valley itself was referred to as "Nepal Proper" by British historians. As per the World Bank, the Kathmandu Valley was one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in South Asia with 2.5 million population by 2010 and an annual growth rate of 4%.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's land area, 21% of the world's population and 5.21% (US$4.47 trillion) of the global economy, as of 2021.

SAARC was founded in Dhaka on 8 December 1985. Its secretariat is based in Kathmandu, Nepal. The organization promotes economic development and regional integration. It launched the South Asian Free Trade Area in 2006. SAARC maintains permanent diplomatic relations at the United Nations as an observer and has developed links with multilateral entities, including the European Union. However, due to the geopolitical conflict between India and Pakistan and the situation in Afghanistan, the organization has been suspended for a long time, and India currently cooperates with its eastern neighbors through BIMSTEC. Currently, there are plans to revive the organization by Bangladesh.

Nepalese English refers to a variety of the English language principally used in Nepal as well as neighboring Sikkim and Gorkhaland regions of India. It is heavily influenced by the Indo-Aryan languages of Nepal.

Many Nepalese speak English as a second or foreign language, with English use being most prevalent among city dwellers residing in Kathmandu (the capital of Nepal). Although Nepali is the native language, English is the primary language used for business in Nepal. In Nepal, where modern English education began in the 1850s, there is little or no consensus among teachers and practitioners on whether to follow British, American or Indian variants of English, or allow the development of a Nepal-specific variety of English.