K2 K2 K2 (, "Kai Ṭū"), also known as Mount Godwin-Austen or Chhogori (Balti and ), at above sea level, is the second highest mountain in the world, after Mount Everest at . It is located on the ChinaPakistan border between Baltistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of northern Pakistan, and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China. K2 is the highest point of the Karakoram range and the highest point in both Pakistan and Xinjiang. K2 is known as the "Savage Mountain" due to the extreme difficulty of ascent. It has the second-highest fatality rate among the eight thousanders, with
Karakoram and Pamir mountains have been nominated for inclusion in UNESCO in 2010 by the National Commission of the People's Republic of China for UNESCO and has tentatively been added to the list. Karakoram is a Turkic term meaning "black gravel". The Central Asian traders originally applied the name to the Karakoram Pass. Early European travellers, including William Moorcroft and George Hayward, started using the term for the range of mountains west of the pass, although they also used the term Muztagh (meaning, "Ice Mountain") for the range now known as Karakoram. Later terminology was influenced by the Survey of India,