A monument with embedded stones from the Mount Everest region has been placed near the Dead Sea in Israel, completing the link between the two extreme points on Earth.
The ceremony was held yesterday at the Ecological Park in the southern part of the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea situated at 422 metres below sea level is known as the lowest point on Earth, whereas the 8,848-metre tall Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
"Mount Everest and Dead Sea Stones Exchange" is the joint project of the Embassy of Israel in Kathmandu and Embassy of Nepal in Israel with a view to promoting tourism and friendship between the two countries, a statement by Israel Embassy read.
"The main objective of these projects is not only to promote natural beauty and cultural heritages of the two countries but also to mark the long standing and the friendly relations between the two countries," the statement said.
Uzi Landau, the Tourism Minister of Israel, Prahlad Kumar Prasai, Nepali Ambassador to Israel, Dov Litvinoff, Head of Tamar Region, Nadav Ben-Yehuda, a Mountaineer, diplomats and government officials were present during the function.
In the first phase of the project, a monument containing stones from the Dead Sea in Israel was placed in Nepal's Mount Everest region on April 23.
The monument, made of hard metal consisting of two pieces of Dead Sea stones, was taken to the Sagarmatha National Park containing the southern half of Mount Everest.
"We need to save the environment in the Himalayas as well as the Dead Sea, to check the impact of climate change, and the monuments will spread the message about this," Israeli Ambassador to Nepal Hanan Goder had said on the occasion.
The monuments are installed to mark the diamond jubilee of the first human ascent on the Everest.
