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The Sierra Nevada de Mérida, approximately 500 kilometres long, forms the continuation of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera into Venezuelan territory. In its central sections, it consists of gneiss and granite, with young sedimentary rocks overlying both flanks. As a result of significant Tertiary uplift, the central mountain block reaches extraordinary heights. It culminates in the 5,003-metre-high Pico Bolívar, but the peaks of Pico Humboldt (4,942 m) and Pico Bonpland (4,883 m), visible on the right of the picture, are only slightly lower. - Book: Picture 9 - Venezuela - 1977

As the name suggests, five of the peaks in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida are covered in perpetual snow. Depending on the aspect, the snow line lies between 4,650 and 4,750 metres. A small glacier tongue extends down from the large, firn-filled cirque of Pico Bolívar (5,003 m), from which the people of Mérida used to cut blocks of ice to cool food and drink. To the right is Pico Abanico (4,900 m). - Book: Picture 21 - Venezuela - 1977