Great Needle Peak ( bg, Голям Иглен връх, Golyam Iglen vrah, ; variant name in es, pico Falsa Aguja, lit=False Needle Peak) is the summit of the central

Levski Ridge Levski Ridge ( bg, Хребет Левски \'hre-bet 'lev-ski\) is the central ridge of the Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island. Its summit, Great Needle Peak rises to 1,680m and is the second highest summit of the island after Mount Friesland ...

Tangra Mountains Tangra Mountains (in Bulgarian ''Тангра планина'', 'Tangra planina' \'tan-gra pla-ni-'na\) () form the principal mountain range of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The range had been nameless until 20 ...

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. Rising to 1,679.5 m, it is the third highest peak of both the mountains and the island after

Mount Friesland Mount Friesland is a mountain rising to in the homonymous Friesland Ridge, the summit of Tangra Mountains and Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Its north rib is connected to Pliska Ridge by Nesebar Gap on the west, an ...

(1700.2 m) and St. Boris Peak (1685 m). Great Needle Peak surmounts

Huron Glacier Huron Glacier is a } long and wide glacial flow on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica, situated east of Perunika Glacier, southeast of Kaliakra Glacier, south of Struma Glacier, west-northwest of Iskar Glacier and n ...

and its tributary draining

Devnya Valley Devnya Valley (Devnenska Dolina \'dev-nen-ska do-li-'na\) is 2.5-km long and 700 m wide valley and is situated between the north slopes of Great Needle Peak (Falsa Aguja Peak) and Helmet Peak in Levski Ridge, Tangra Mountains on Livingston Islan ...

to the north,

Magura Glacier Magura Glacier ( bg, ледник Магура, lednik Magura, ) on the southeast side of Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is located to the north of M'Kean Point, northeast of Srebarna Glacier, s ...

to the east,

Srebarna Glacier Srebarna Glacier ( bg, ледник Сребарна, lednik Srebarna, ) on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is situated east-northeast of Boyana Glacier, southeast of the head of Macy Glacier and southwest of Magura ...

to the south, and

Macy Glacier Macy Glacier is a long and crescent-shaped glacier on the southern slopes of the Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The glacier is bounded by Friesland Ridge to the northwest, Levski Ridge to the ...

to the southwest.

History

The peak's name derives from the Spanish name form ''pico Falsa Aguja'' (False Needle Peak) that probably dates back to 1957, with ‘great’ becoming established in usage and considered more suitable than ‘false’ as this heavily glaciated, major peak could hardly be associated with the ‘true’ Needle Peak (''pico Aguja''), a sharp rocky peak of elevation just 370 m situated near

Samuel Point Samuel Point (Nos Samuil \'nos sa-mu-'il\) is on the coast of Bransfield Strait forming the southwest side of the entrance to Brunow Bay on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The point is situated on the east side of R ...

8 km away.L. Ivanov and N. Ivanova
''The World of Antarctica''.
Generis Publishing, 2022. 241 pp.
2014 Bulgarian edition of the book
The first ascent and GPS survey of Great Needle Peak was made on 8 January 2015 by the Bulgarian mountaineers Doychin Boyanov, Nikolay Petkov and Aleksander Shopov from

Camp Academia Camp Academia ( bg, лагер Академия, lager Akademiya, ) is a geographical locality in eastern Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, named for the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in appreciation of Academy’s contributi ...

locality (541 m) via

Lozen Saddle Lozen Saddle (Lozenska Sedlovina \'lo-zen-ska se-dlo-vi-'na\) is a 437 m high saddle situated between Lozen Nunatak and Zograf Peak in Tangra Mountains, eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica which provides overland a ...

(437 m) and Plana Peak (740 m). Their measured peak elevation of 1,679.5 m) updated the previously existing estimate (1,690 m according to the Bulgarian topographic survey

Tangra 2004/05 The Tangra 2004/05 Expedition was commissioned by the Antarctic Place-names Commission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, managed by the Manfred Wörner Foundation, and supported by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, the I ...

L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2010. (First edition 2009. )), and confirmed that the summit of both the mountains and the island is indeed the 1700.2 m high

.N. Petkov and D. Boyanov
Report of the project ''The Peaks of Tangra Mountains.''
Sofia, 2015. (in Bulgarian)

Location

The peak is located 6.7 km east of

, 3.32 km east by south of Levski Peak, 2.21 km south-southeast of Plana Peak, 2.54 km south of

Sitalk Peak Sitalk Peak ( bg, връх Ситалк, vrah Sitalk, ) is a rocky peak of elevation 600 m in Levski Ridge, Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Situated at the end of a side ridge rinning northwards fro ...

and 1.84 km south of

Tutrakan Peak Tutrakan Peak ( bg, връх Тутракан, vrah Tutrakan, ) is a rocky peak of 810 m in the Levski Ridge of the Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica surmounting Devnya Valley to the east, and Huron ...

, 2.15 km southwest of Helmet Peak, 3.32 km northwest of

M'Kean Point M'Kean Point on the southeast coast of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is formed by an offshoot of Kalofer Peak. The point separates the termini of Srebarna Glacier to the southwest and Magura Glacier to the north-nor ...

, 1.29 km north of

Serdica Peak Serdica Peak ( bg, връх Сердика, vrah Serdika, ) rises to approximately 1,200m in Levski Ridge, Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Linked to Silistra Knoll to the west-southwest by Kotel Ga ...

, and 470 m southeast of

Sofia Peak Sofia Peak ( bg, връх София, vrah Sofiya, ) is the ice-covered peak rising to 1655 m in Levski Ridge, central Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, 470 m northwest of the summit point ...

(1655 m) with which it forms a twin peak.

Maps

Chart of South Shetland including Coronation Island, &c.
from the exploration of the sloop Dove in the years 1821 and 1822 by George Powell Commander of the same. Scale ca. 1:200000. London: Laurie, 1822
South Shetland Islands.
Scale 1:200000 topographic map. DOS 610 Sheet W 62 60. Tolworth, UK, 1968. * Islas Livingston y Decepción. Mapa topográfico a escala 1:100000. Madrid: Servicio Geográfico del Ejército, 1991. * S. Soccol, D. Gildea and J. Bath
Livingston Island, Antarctica.
Scale 1:100000 satellite map. The Omega Foundation, USA, 2004. * L.L. Ivanov et al., Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands (from English Strait to Morton Strait, with illustrations and ice-cover distribution), 1:100000 scale topographic map,

Antarctic Place-names Commission The Antarctic Place-names Commission was established by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute in 1994, and since 2001 has been a body affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. The Commission approves Bulgarian place names in ...

of Bulgaria, Sofia, 2005 * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2010. (First edition 2009. )
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated. * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Smith Island. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2017.

Gallery

Tangra-Mountains-View-1822.png, North view of

depicting (left to right) Great Needle Peak, Levski Peak,

Lyaskovets Peak Lyaskovets Peak ( bg, връх Лясковец, vrah Lyaskovets, ) is the easternmost peak of Friesland Ridge in the Tangra Mountains, eastern Livingston Island and has an elevation of 1,473 m. The peak is bounded by Catalunyan Saddle on the we ...

, St. Boris Peak and

Simeon Peak Simeon Peak ( bg, връх Симеон, vrah Simeon, ) rises to 1,580 mD. Boyanov and N. PetkovThe Peaks of Tangra Mountains: Project Report Part Two 2016/17.Sofia, February 2017 (in Bulgarian) in Friesland Ridge, Tangra Mountains, Livingst ...

, with Desolation Island in the foreground; fragment of an illustration to George Powell's 1822 chart of the

Tangra-Map.jpg, Map of Tangra Mountains Livingston-Island-Map-2010-15.png, Topographic map of Livingston Island and Smith Island Tangra-Great-Needle.jpg, Great Needle Peak from Kuzman Knoll, with Helmet Peak in the left background Great-Needle-Miziya.jpg, Great Needle Peak from

Miziya Peak Miziya Peak ( bg, връх Мизия, vrah Miziya, ) is the 604 m summit of Vidin Heights on Varna Peninsula, eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The peak overlooks Kaliakra Glacier to the south, and Saedineni ...

, with

Sliven Peak Sliven Peak ( bg, връх Сливен, vrah Sliven, ) rises to 530 m in the east extremity of Melnik Ridge, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The peak has precipitous rocky southern slopes and partly ice-free norther ...

and Atanasov Nunatak in the foreground,

with

Kukeri Nunataks The Kukeri Nunataks (Kukerski Nunatatsi \'ku-ker-ski 'nu-na-ta-tsi\) are two rocky peaks with an elevation of , on Huron Glacier, Livingston Island, off West Antarctica. The Kukeri Nunataks are situated in the north foothills of the Tangra Moun ...

and

Nestinari Nunataks Nestinari Nunataks (Nestinarski Nunatatsi \ne-sti-'nar-ski 'nu-na-ta-tsi\) are a pair of rocky peaks of elevation 470 m and 520 m in middle Huron Glacier, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Situated in the north foothil ...

in the middle, and Great Needle Peak and St. Ivan Rilski Col surmounting Plana Peak and

Kardam Buttress Kardam Buttress (Kardamov Rid \kar-'da-mov 'rid\) is a sloping buttress projecting 1 km northwards from St. Ivan Rilski Col into Huron Glacier on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, and has precipitous and partly ic ...

in the background Tangra.jpg, Central

, from left to right Great Needle Peak, Levski Peak and

Levski-Ridge.jpg,

from

Bransfield Strait Bransfield Strait or Fleet Sea ( es, Estrecho de Bransfield, Mar de la Flota) is a body of water about wide extending for in a general northeast – southwest direction between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula. History ...

, with Great Needle Peak in the centre. Srebarna.jpg, Great Needle Peak from

, with

in the middle and

in the left background Levski-Tangra.jpg, The twin peak of

and Great Needle Peak from

, with Levski Peak in the foreground and Helmet Peak in the left background Tangra-Crest.jpg, On the crest of Tangra Mountains, a view from Presian Ridge east towards

Catalunyan Saddle Catalunyan Saddle (Katalunska Sedlovina \ka-ta-'lun-ska se-dlo-vi-'na\) is a saddle of 1260 m height in the Friesland Ridge of the Tangra Mountains on Livingston Island, in the South Shetland Islands. The saddle is bounded by Lyaskovets Peak to ...

(with the bivouac of Tangra 2004/05 Survey),

is on the left, and St. Ivan Rilski Col and Great Needle Peak in the background

Notes

References

Bulgarian Antarctic Gazetteer.

. (in Bulgarian; cf. the "Levski Ridge" entry)
Pico Falsa Aguja.
SCAR

Composite Antarctic Gazetteer The Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica (CGA) of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) is the authoritative international gazetteer containing all Antarctic toponyms published in national gazetteers, plus basic information about t ...

External links

Great Needle Peak.
Copernix satellite image {{Bulgarian-named Antarctic place Tangra Mountains Mountains of Antarctica