IN PHOTOS: The mesmerising Mount Everest through ages

Mount Everest is not just the highest peak on the planet, not just the incarnation of the Supreme Being, not just a pinnacle of exemplary beauty which has silently witnessed the world unfold before its eyes -- but the 8,850 metre high summit probably signifies the zenith of all human emotions.

Thousands of mountaineers have scaled the impossible peak; hundreds have also lost their lives during the expeditions, and many others have polluted the serenity on its way: 'Sagarmatha' has seen it all without saying a word -- as it's often said, 'one is always alone at the top'.

As the world celebrates the 60th anniversary of the first successful expedition to the peak of Mount Everest, and countless stories attached to it, we present some scintillating images of the Big Daddy ...

The first flights over the Mount Everest on April 3, 1933. The Marquess of Clydesdale's Westland PV-3 is shown approaching Mount Everest.

He was accompanied by Flight Lieutenant D F McIntyre in a Westland Wallace, each carrying one passenger.

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British mountaineer George Leigh Mallory (1886 - 1924) and Brigadier Edward Felix Norton (1884 - 1954) reach 27,000 feet on the north-east ridge of Mount Everest, in the January 1922 photograph.

Mallory returned for another attempt to the peak in 1924, but never came back. His body was found 75 years later.

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Nepalese people navigate a stretch of the Himalayas by foot under the shadow of Mount Everest in this January, 1950 photograph.

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Mount Everest is shown Nov 29, 2001 in this satellite image.

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British Army soldiers and mountaineers John 'Brummie' Stokes and Michael 'Bronco' Lane seen above the icefall at the entrance to the western cwm of Mount Everest, during their successful ascent of the mountain, on May 1976.

The SAS men, part of a joint British-Nepalese Army expedition, reached the summit on 16 May, 1976.

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A mountaineer stops to admire the view of Mt Everest in the middle of the Himalayas in this January 1955 photograph.

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The West shoulder of Mount Everest is seen from 18,500ft, with Mount Nuptse to the left in this Januray 1974 photograph.

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Aerial photograph of the Khumbu Icefall and Nutptse peak (7879m) on May, 15, 2003 in the Everest mountain range on the Nepal-Tibet border.

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Aerial photograph of Everest Base camp, a large tent city full of climbers at 18,000 ft. which sits at the foot of Mount Everest.

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Chinese climbers display an Olympic torch, an Olympic flame lantern, a flag of the International Olympic Committee, a Chinese National flag and a flag of the 29th Olympic Games after they successfully carried the Olympic flame to the top of Mt Everest on May 8, 2008.

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The footprint of a reported 'Abominable Snowman', ...

Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary make a jubilant return to Britain after becoming the first men to scale Mount Everest, in this July 1953 photograph.

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