Puncak Jaya

Puncak Jaya, highest mountain in Indonesia. It is one of the Maoke mountains of central Papua (formerly Irian Jaya), New Guinea. Puncak Jaya (or Victory Peak) is, at 5,030 m (16,503 ft), also the world's highest mountain on an island. It was once called Mount Carstensz after the Dutch explorer Jan Carstensz who reached it in 1623. With two nearby peaks, Puncak Jaya forms a horseshoe-shaped massif capped by a large glacier, although the mountain is within 5° of latitude from the equator. Puncak Jaya's lower slopes are covered in an extensive rainforest: the higher slopes support coniferous forests and alpine vegetation up to almost 4,400 m (14,500 ft), the highest level of plant growth. The mountain is bounded on the north and south by huge cliffs that exceed 3,000 m (10,000 ft) in places. Several expeditions failed to reach the summit before it was finally climbed in 1962 by a team led by the Austrian Heinrich Harrer and the New Zealander Philip Temple.