Elevation

Elevation is the height of things. Imagine you and your friends are building a tower out of blocks. The tower starts at the floor or ground level and goes up into the air. How many blocks high your tower is compared to the floor is its elevation!

Just like with the tower, the elevation of land tells us how high land is compared to the surrounding flat land. If you look at a mountain range, some mountains are taller than others. They have higher elevations. If you look at a globe or a map, you might notice lines that curve around and mark different elevations. These lines are called contour lines. The closer together the contour lines, the steeper the slope of land.

Sometimes, people talk about elevation when talking about buildings, too. A skyscraper might have lots of floors, and each floor is elevated from the one below it. So the very top floor of the building is higher than the ground. This is its elevation, just like with land.

So, elevation can mean height above the ground or height above sea level. It helps people understand the shape of the land, build tall buildings, and climb mountains!