About

What is a ‘Ribu’?

A Ribu is a mountain with a topographic prominence of 1000 metres or more. Prominence measures the height of a mountain or hill’s summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling it but containing no higher summit within it. It is a method used to determine the independence of a summit. There are 7150 Ribus around the world.

A free download of the entire list is available on this page.

The Project

The World Ribus project began in 2020 after discussions between topographic prominence enthusiasts on the Baggers without Borders (BwB) online forum, following the release of Andrew Kirmse’s worldwide prominence dataset from 2017 based on Jonathan de Ferranti’s global 3″ DEM data. The original list of Ribus was conceived by Daniel Quinn and Dr Andy Dean in 2009 in Jakarta, Indonesia as part of the Gunung Bagging non-profit initiative. It covered Indonesia, Malaysia and Timor-Leste (East Timor). Indeed, the word ‘ribu’ means ‘thousand’ in Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia.

A sub-Ribu is a peak with a prominence of between 990 metres and 999 metres and therefore fails to quality as a Ribu by ten metres or less. This sub-list will be published later as an appendix to the main list. At the most recent count in October 2024, there are around 226 sub-Ribus.

Custodian of the Ribus list and manager of this site is Daniel Quinn who can be contacted via email to dan@gunung.org. He is available for presentations about the Ribus project both online and in person.

Project Adviser is Alan Dawson.

Thanks also to Deividas Valaitis for database management.

The Database and Editors

The editors’ web-app and Ribu database was designed by Oscar Argudo. A full list of country editors and acknowledgements is coming soon as various regional data is published. See below for links to the lists as the data becomes ready. Some editors – notably Jonathan de Ferranti, Jude N, Daniel Quinn and Rob Woodall – edited a wide range of countries. Therefore the table below this text is a simplified explanation of the people primarily involved for each country or territory. It may yet be amended further.

Andrew Kirmse released an updated database of mountains in January 2023 based on GLO30 and we set about cross-checking our work with his. We also made great use of the ‘High Asia‘ list which comprises peaks over 5800m researched by Eberhard Jurgalski for viewfinderpanoramas. It’s a key source of well-researched data to cross check with other sources where available. We have also incorporated some FABDEM figures into the database. FABDEM is a ‘bare earth terrain model’ with buildings and vegetation (i.e. forest) removed based on AI / machine learning techniques which claims to offer improved accuracy. More on sources and methods will be published in due course.

Regional Divisions

This website uses regional divisions based on Level 1 and Level 2 of PEMRACS – the Peakbagger.com Mountain Range Classification System. It’s a consistent, hierarchical database with a focus on topography (i.e. mountain ranges) rather than political divisions. One of the many benefits of this method is that no single peak appears in two lists; most other systems for making regional divisions are based on international borders and numerous peaks lie exactly on those borders. However we chose to divide the Andes into north and south using Level 3 PEMRACS divisions because grouping well over 700 peaks together on a single page was less than ideal. Having Asia divided into west and east is also much easier for navigation.

International Boundaries

Country boundaries and listings on this website are taken from Natural Earth data. Where used, three-letter country codes are taken from the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes list with minor additions where necessary. More details will be given in due course.

Country or territory Editor(s)
Afghanistan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Albania Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Algeria Jude N, Andy Tomkins
Angola Jude N
Antarctica Jonathan de Ferranti, Keith Bennett
Argentina Keith Bennett, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Armenia Mihai Giurgiulescu
Australia Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Austria Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Azerbaijan Mihai Giurgiulescu
Bhutan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Bolivia Oscar Argudo, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Bosnia and Herzegovina Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Brazil Daniel Patrick Quinn
Bulgaria Mihai Giurgiulescu
Cambodia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Cameroon Jude N
Canada Steven Song, Chris Hood, Rob Woodall, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Cape Verde Daniel Patrick Quinn
Chad Jude N
Chile Keith Bennett, Daniel Patrick Quinn, Alvaro Vivanca
China Mark Trengrove, Min He, Leibo Zhu
Colombia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Comoros Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Congo DRC Rob Woodall
Costa Rica Daniel Patrick Quinn
Côte d’Ivoire Jude N
Croatia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Cuba Daniel Patrick Quinn
Cyprus Daniel Patrick Quinn
Czech Republic Mark Trengrove
Djibouti Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Dominica Daniel Patrick Quinn
Dominican Republic Daniel Patrick Quinn
Ecuador Daniel Patrick Quinn
Egypt Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
El Salvador Daniel Patrick Quinn
Equatorial Guinea Jude N
Eritrea Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Ethiopia Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Fiji Daniel Patrick Quinn
France Oscar Argudo
French Polynesia Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
French Southern Lands Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Georgia Mihai Giurgiulescu
Germany Mark Trengrove, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Greece Mark Trengrove, Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Greenland Jonathan de Ferranti
Guadeloupe Daniel Patrick Quinn
Guatemala Daniel Patrick Quinn
Guinea Jude N
Guyana Daniel Patrick Quinn
Haiti Daniel Patrick Quinn
Heard and McDonald Islands Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Honduras Daniel Patrick Quinn
Iceland Petter Bjørstad
India Daniel Patrick Quinn
Indonesia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Iran Daniel Patrick Quinn,Mihai Giurgiulescu
Iraq Daniel Patrick Quinn
Ireland Mark Trengrove
Italy Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński, Rob Woodall
Jamaica Daniel Patrick Quinn
Jan Mayen Petter Bjørstad
Japan Rob Woodall
Kazakhstan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Kenya Rob Woodall
Korea, North Daniel Patrick Quinn
Korea, South Daniel Patrick Quinn
Kosovo Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Kuwait Daniel Patrick Quinn
Kyrgyzstan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Laos Daniel Patrick Quinn
Lebanon Daniel Patrick Quinn
Lesotho Jude N
Liberia Jude N
Libya Jude N
Madagascar Daniel Patrick Quinn
Malawi Jude N
Malaysia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Martinique Daniel Patrick Quinn
Mexico Daniel Patrick Quinn
Mongolia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Montenegro Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Morocco Andy Tomkins
Mozambique Jude N
Myanmar Daniel Patrick Quinn
Namibia Jude N
Nepal Daniel Patrick Quinn
New Caledonia Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
New Zealand Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Nicaragua Daniel Patrick Quinn
Niger Jude N
Nigeria Jude N
North Macedonia Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Norway Petter Bjørstad
Oman Daniel Patrick Quinn
Pakistan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Panama Daniel Patrick Quinn
Papua New Guinea Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Peru Daniel Patrick Quinn
Philippines, The Daniel Patrick Quinn
Poland Mark Trengrove
Portugal Mark Trengrove
Puerto Rico Daniel Patrick Quinn
Réunion Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Romania Mihai Giurgiulescu
Russia Keith Bennett, Daniel Patrick Quinn, Alan Dawson
Rwanda Rob Woodall
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Saint Kitts and Nevis Daniel Patrick Quinn
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Daniel Patrick Quinn
Samoa Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
Sao Tome and Principe Jude N, Rob Woodall
Saudi Arabia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Serbia Daniel Patrick Quinn
Sierra Leone Jude N
Slovakia Mark Trengrove, Nikolaus Żuliński
Slovenia Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Solomon Islands Daniel Patrick Quinn
Somalia Jude N, Daniel Patrick Quinn
South Africa Jude N
South Georgia Keith Bennett, Jonathan de Ferranti
South Sudan Rob Woodall
Spain Oscar Argudo
Sri Lanka Daniel Patrick Quinn
Sudan Andy Tomkins, Jude N
Suriname Daniel Patrick Quinn
Svalbard Petter Bjørstad
Sweden Petter Bjørstad
Switzerland Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński
Syria Daniel Patrick Quinn
Taiwan Mark Trengrove
Tajikistan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Tanzania Rob Woodall
Thailand Daniel Patrick Quinn
Timor-Leste (East Timor) Daniel Patrick Quinn
Tonga Daniel Patrick Quinn
Turkey Rob Woodall
Turkmenistan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Uganda Rob Woodall
Ukraine Mihai Giurgiulescu, Daniel Patrick Quinn
United Kingdom Mark Trengrove
USA Daniel Patrick Quinn, Rob Woodall
Uzbekistan Daniel Patrick Quinn
Vanuatu Daniel Patrick Quinn
Venezuela Daniel Patrick Quinn
Vietnam Daniel Patrick Quinn
Yemen Daniel Patrick Quinn
Zimbabwe Jude N