When does a hill become a mountain? Nobody officially agrees
Geographers once drew the line at 1,000 feet, British hillwalkers at 2,000, and the Great Soviet Encyclopedia at 200 metres of relative height. The US Geological Survey eventually concluded the words have no technical definition at all. In Scotland, even towering peaks are routinely called hills.
A hill is a landform rising above the land around it, usually with a clear summit, lower and gentler than a mountain. Beyond that, definitions wobble. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests 2,000 feet, and today the UK and Ireland usually treat a summit of at least 610 metres as a mountain, while Britain's Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 used 600 metres for its access rules. Some definitions add a prominence requirement. In Wales the difference is more about land use and appearance than height, and Scotland's Cuillin and Torridon ranges keep the humble label hills regardless.
Hills form in several ways: faulting, erosion of larger mountains, deposits left by glaciers such as drumlins and moraines, or the weathering of exposed bedrock. Their soft, rounded tops come from downhill creep, the slow diffusive movement of soil and loose rock. Regional names often spread into geology: a drumlin is a whale-shaped glacial hill, a butte an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides, a tor a rocky crown common in south-west England, a puy a conical volcanic hill in Auvergne, and a pingo an earth-covered mound of ice in polar regions.
People have long preferred high ground. Settlements sat on hills to escape floods, avoid dense forest or see enemies coming; ancient Rome's seven hills helped protect it. In the Middle East, whole towns stand on tells, artificial mounds of mudbrick debris built up over generations. Many British hilltop churches are thought to occupy earlier pagan holy sites, a tradition Washington National Cathedral echoed by taking the capital's highest hill. Armies value the same advantages, and famous fights such as Alesia in 52 BC and Bunker Hill in 1775, actually fought on Breed's Hill, turned on elevation. The Great Wall of China follows hilltops for the same reason.
Hills also mean leisure. British hillwalking, hiking without ropes or technical climbing, has spawned lists such as Scotland's Munros and England's Wainwrights, and peak baggers try to climb every entry. Cooper's Hill in England's West Country hosts an annual race in which competitors chase a wheel of cheese downhill, and the winner keeps it.
Source: Hill
