What is a ‘Ribu’?
A Ribu is a mountain with a topographic prominence of 1000 metres or more. According to Wikipedia, ‘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 measure of the independence of a summit.’ There are approximately 7150 Ribus around the world. The latest count in September 2023 is indeed 7150.
In due course, a free download of the entire list will be available from the site.
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 January 2023, there are – very approximately – around 232 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
Project Adviser is Alan Dawson.
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 Newton-Stock, 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 Newton-Stock, Andy Tomkins |
| Angola | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Antarctica | Jonathan de Ferranti, Keith Bennett |
| Argentina | Keith Bennett, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Armenia | Mihai Giurgiulescu |
| Australia | Jude Newton-Stock, 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 Newton-Stock |
| Canada | Steven Song, Chris Hood, Rob Woodall, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Cape Verde | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Chad | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Chile | Keith Bennett, Daniel Patrick Quinn, Alvaro Vivanca |
| China | Mark Trengrove, Min He, Leibo Zhu |
| Colombia | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Comoros | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Congo DRC | Rob Woodall |
| Costa Rica | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Côte d’Ivoire | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Croatia | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Cuba | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Cyprus | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Czech Republic | Mark Trengrove |
| Djibouti | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Dominica | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Dominican Republic | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Ecuador | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Egypt | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| El Salvador | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Equatorial Guinea | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Eritrea | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Ethiopia | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Fiji | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| France | Oscar Argudo |
| French Polynesia | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| French Southern Lands | Jude Newton-Stock, 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 Newton-Stock |
| Guyana | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Haiti | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Heard and McDonald Islands | Jude Newton-Stock, 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 Newton-Stock |
| Liberia | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Libya | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Madagascar | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Malawi | Jude Newton-Stock |
| 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 Newton-Stock |
| Myanmar | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Namibia | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Nepal | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| New Caledonia | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| New Zealand | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Nicaragua | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Niger | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Nigeria | Jude Newton-Stock |
| 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 Newton-Stock, 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 Newton-Stock, 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 Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Samoa | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Sao Tome and Principe | Jude Newton-Stock, Rob Woodall |
| Saudi Arabia | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Serbia | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Sierra Leone | Jude Newton-Stock |
| Slovakia | Mark Trengrove, Nikolaus Żuliński |
| Slovenia | Daniel Patrick Quinn, Nikolaus Żuliński |
| Solomon Islands | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Somalia | Jude Newton-Stock, Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| South Africa | Jude Newton-Stock |
| South Georgia | Keith Bennett, Jonathan de Ferranti |
| South Sudan | Rob Woodall |
| Spain | Oscar Argudo |
| Sri Lanka | Daniel Patrick Quinn |
| Sudan | Andy Tomkins, Jude Newton-Stock |
| 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 |
| 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 Newton-Stock |