Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain

Alrighty, we have learned while we played aboard Kilimanjaro Safaris and have seen how tough it can be to be a bug. Let’s keep moving onward to the next Animal Kingdom adventure, Disney’s Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain!

Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain is one of my favorite attractions in all of Walt Disney World Resort. Added to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in 2006, it gave thrill seekers a reason to visit and brought a second weinie to the Park. It also helped reinforce the Park’s claim that it is most definitely “NotAZoo.”

This breathtaking piece of Himalayan mountain range is an impressive engineering and artistic masterpiece. Each of the three structural systems are separate, independently functioning systems that co-exist inside the mountain without interfering with each other. That’s quite an engineering feat! Not only that, but the mountain range containing the system is equally impressive in its natural, realistic appearance. Imagineers utilized special design techniques to create this view. The Forbidden Mountain is actually the one in the foreground, while Everest is to the back, giving a relation of depth to the scene.

As we mentioned previously, Animal Kingdom was originally intended to encompass both real, living animals and mythical, imagined creatures. Well, Expedition Everest’s Yeti fits both categories! To the people of the mountainous regions of southwestern China, India, Nepal, and Tibet, the Yeti is more than legend. Since no live Yeti has been brought into captivity, Imagineers pulled from descriptions and stories passed from generation to generation of Asian populations in the shadow of the Himalayas and combined biological research to create an 18-foot-tall Audio-Animatronics (the largest ever created by WDI), very lifelike, believable being. The creature is both mythical and real to the people of the southern Asia; however, the Yeti is not to be feared. He is the revered protector of the forest. When Disney’s Yeti chases Guests off the Forbidden Mountain, he’s really just doing his job!

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Today’s Takeaway:
Did you know?

• The Himalayas are the world’s largest mountain system. The range includes the infamous Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth, which peaks at 29,028 feet above sea level.
• The majority of the continent of Asia is north of the equator.
• Asia’s land area is about 30 percent of the Earth’s entire surface.

Visit “Let’s Travel Through Asia” on Squidoo for a very thorough unit study about the continent of Asia. You will cover geography, social studies, history, foreign language, and more, with skill levels ranging from elementary through high school.

Include in that unit study: Recently, a teenage American boy became the youngest person to reach the summit of Mount Everest and has set a goal to scale all seven of the Earth’s highest peaks. What are those seven mountains? What are their elevations? Assemble Styrofoam craft cones of varying sizes and shapes into one scale model range of the seven mountains.

SCHOOL SUBJECT: Geography, Social Science, History, Foreign Language
SKILL LEVEL: Elementary, Middle Grades, High School

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