Low's outpeaks Kinabalu

Low's outpeaks Kinabalu

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): Low's Peak on Mount Kinabalu, which for 87 years was considered the highest point in Southeast Asia, no longer holds that honor.

With the help of U.S. satellites, surveyors found that nearby Victoria Peak was taller. Victoria, at 4,097 meters is 17 meters higher than Low's, The Star reported yesterday, quoting Sabah state's Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee.

Ramli Osman, vice-chairman of the Sabah Institute of Surveyors, that helped organize the measuring team, confirmed the report.

A government-sponsored mission has been on Mount Kinabalu, near the Sabah state capital Kota Kinabalu on Borneo, since Monday. Using nine American satellites and the Global Positioning System they pinpointed the exact height of Low's Peak, said Grace Choong of the Sabah Land and Survey Department.

It was found to be only 4,093 meters, 7.6 meters lower than the previously estimated 4,101 meters announced on June 25, 1910, by British surveyors. Yong said the surveyors found a plateau on Victoria Peak that was 4,097 meters, four meters higher.

He said there was a horn on Victoria Peak about 10 meters high and he had asked the team to again use the satellites and the Global Positioning System to determine the exact height, including the horn, of the Victoria Peak, within a year.

Victoria Peak had not been measured previously because in 1910 when the British took measurements from a ship, Victoria was hidden, according to survey officials.