Mountains

Mountains are taller than hills, but the distinction between hills and mountains is decided entirely by the people that live near them.

Thus, distinguishing mountains from smaller topographic features is partly a matter of perception, rather than of scientific measurement and comparison to a known standard. Absolute elevation above sea level does not make a high point into a mountain nearly so much as local relief does (relief is the difference between topographic high spots and low spots). In a landscape with thousands of feet or more of local relief, a feature several hundred feet tall would be considered an insignificant hill, whereas in Holland, it would be considered a mountain of the first order. Mountains of 4,000 ft (1,219 m), 10,000 ft (3,048 m), and 16,000 ft (4,877 m) may look vastly different on a map, but look equally large when observed in their local environment.