Yosemite

Region in the Sierra Nevada, eastern California, USA, a national park from 1890; area 3,079 sq km/1,189 sq mi. Embracing 12 km/8 mi of the Yosemite Valley, its main features are Yosemite Gorge, cut by the Merced River; Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in the USA, plunging 739 m/2,425 ft in three leaps; Half Dome Mountain, a 2 km-/1 mi-high sheer cliff on El Capitan, the largest body of exposed granite in the world; Mount Lyell, rising to 3,997 m/13,114 ft; and groves of giant sequoia trees, the largest living things on earth. It is a World Heritage Site.

History
The Yosemite Valley was formerly inhabited by American Indian peoples, and the first Europeans to visit the area were the Mariposa Battalion in pursuit of raiding parties in 1851. It was explored by the naturalist John Muir in 1868, and made a national park by an Act of Congress in 1890.