If you measure height based on elevation above sea level, Mount Everest is the tallest mountain at 29,032 feet. However, if you measure height based on distance from the center of the Earth, the winner is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. This occurs because the Earth is not a perfect sphere; it is an oblate spheroid that bulges at the Equator. Chimborazo sits nearly on the Equator, where the bulge is greatest. Because of this bulge, the summit of Chimborazo is over 7,000 feet further from the Earth's core than the summit of Mount Everest. Effectively, the top of Chimborazo is the point on Earth that is closest to the stars.