Not Everest, this is the mountain on Earth closest to the stars

This mountain is the closest point on Earth to the stars. And it's not the famous Mount Everest.

What is the tallest mountain on Earth? Turns out the answer to that question is more controversial than you might think.

Chimborazo is the highest mountain in Ecuador. It is also the closest point on Earth to the stars. (Photo: Getty Images).

If you measure the height above mean sea level, it is clear that Mount Everest at 8,849 meters, located on the border of Tibet and Nepal, is the highest mountain in the world.

However, if you measured a mountain from base to summit, the 10,211-meter-tall Mauna Kea , an extinct volcano on the island of Hawaii, would come out on top.

But there is another contender for the title of tallest mountain: Chimborazo, an extinct volcano located in the Cordillera Occidental mountain range in the Andes of Ecuador.

When measured from sea level, Chimborazo is considerably shorter than Everest, at 6,263 meters. However, the summit of Chimborazo is actually 2,072 meters farther from the center of the Earth than Everest, making it the closest point on Earth to the stars.

When the Earth is not really round

'If you imagine the Earth as a blue dot in space, Chimborazo is the only place you can stand that is as far away from the center of that dot as you can get,' explains Derek van Westrum, a physicist with NOAA's National Geodetic Survey, the federal agency that handles mapping and charting.

The reason lies in Chimborazo's location, 1.5 degrees south of the equator.

The Earth actually bulges slightly around its 'waist', Mr Van Westrum explained . 'The Earth is made of rock and is quite round, but because it spins it bulges at the equator , ' he said.

The centrifugal force due to the planet's constant rotation has caused the Earth to bulge at the equator, and so Chimborazo is farther from the Earth's center than the high mountains of the Himalayas, which are all farther from the equator.

Ecuador has recently seized on this statistical oddity to promote Chimborazo as an emerging destination. The idea is that, unlike Everest or Aconcagua (the highest peak in the Andes), this transcendent mountain is within physical and financial reach of adventurous travelers. They just need to travel four hours south from Quito to conquer the snow-capped peak.

Mount Chimborazo is located a four-hour drive south of the capital Quito. (Photo: Moment RF/Getty Images).

Climbing Mount Chimborazo

Chimborazo is actually only the 39th highest mountain in the Andes measured from sea level, but for a brief period in the 19th century it was considered the highest mountain in the world.

That rumor originated with the famous German geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, who climbed Chimborazo in 1802. Von Humboldt only ascended to about 5,882 meters before descending into the highland valley that he later named the Avenue of the Volcanoes.

However, the widespread stories of his daring ascent of the Andean giant attracted many European explorers to Ecuador, including the British mountaineer Edward Whymper. After his famous ascents of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc in the Alps in 1880, Whymper became the first person known to have reached the summit of Chimborazo.

Today, about 500 climbers sign up to conquer Chimborazo each year, but only a little over half of them reach the summit.

The road to Chimborazo is much easier than the journey to conquer the Himalayas. (Photo: Alamy Stock).

The main climbing season is from late September to February, when the weather is milder and the mountains are often covered in a thick layer of snow. However, the Ecuadorian Ministry of Tourism says the appeal of the Ecuadorian Andes is that, unlike most other climbing hubs, it is a year-round destination.

The country's highest mountains are relatively mild, being located in the tropics and with little change in daylight between seasons. Most peaks are also easily accessible from highland cities like Quito or Cuenca. For example, Chimborazo is located almost equidistant from the two mountains on the Pan-American Highway.

'More and more people are starting to come to train and prepare for the big challenges at Chimborazo, ' said Santiago Granda, Ecuador's deputy minister of tourism. 'You are further away from the Earth's core and closer to the stars – and that is a big attraction.'

Those hoping to reach the summit typically take two days to conquer, compared to the roughly two months it takes to climb Everest. Of course, climbers also need about a week to acclimatize first.

Many people come to Chimborazo for its unique alpine environment. 'For some Ecuadorians, it's the first time in their lives they've seen snow,' Granda noted .

The mountain is also home to 8,000 wild vicunas, the ancestors of the domesticated alpaca, and the world's largest hummingbird, as well as twisted forests of queuña, which can survive at higher altitudes than any other tree species.