[3] Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Nanga Parbat is the westernmost major peak of the Himalayas, and thus in the traditional view of the Himalayas as bounded by the Indus and Yarlung Tsangpo/Brahmaputra rivers, it is the western anchor of the entire mountain range.

[5] An immense, dramatic peak rising far above its surrounding terrain, it has the second-highest prominence among the 100 tallest mountains on Earth only behind Mount Everest.

[7] The name Nanga Parbat is derived from the Sanskrit words nagna and parvata, which, when combined, translate to "Naked Mountain".

[15] To the north, the complex, somewhat more gently-sloped Rakhiot Flank rises 7,000 m (23,000 ft) from the Indus River valley to the summit in just 25 km (16 mi), one of the ten greatest elevation gains in such a short distance on Earth.

The key col for Nanga Parbat is Zoji La in Kashmir Valley, which connects it to higher peaks in the remaining Himalaya-Karakoram range.

[16] On the Tibetan Plateau, Nanga Parbat is the westernmost peak of the Himalayas, whereas Namcha Barwa marks the east end.

Near the base of the Rupal Face is a glacial lake called Latbo, above a seasonal shepherds' village of the same name.

While the team were all strong climbers, none had Himalayan experience, and poor planning (particularly an inadequate number of porters), coupled with bad weather, prevented the team from progressing far beyond the Rakhiot Peak northeast of the Nanga Parbat summit, reached by Peter Aschenbrenner [de] and Herbert Kunigk, but they did establish the feasibility of a route via Rakhiot Peak and the main ridge.

[20] The Tyrolean climbers, Peter Aschenbrenner and Erwin Schneider [de], reached an estimated height of 7,900 m (25,900 ft) on July 6, but were forced to return because of worsening weather.

About 14 June, seven Germans and nine Sherpas, almost the entire team, were at Camp IV below Rakhiot Peak when it was overrun by an avalanche.

[26] In May 1939, Harrer was selected by the German Himalayan Foundation to take part in a new expedition to Nanga Parbat,[27] under the leadership of Peter Aufschnaiter.

They concluded that the face was a viable route, but World War II intervened and the four men were interned by the British in Dehradun, India.

Under the influence of the drug pervitin (based on the stimulant methamphetamine used by soldiers during World War II), padutin, and tea from coca leaves, he reached the summit dangerously late, at 7:00 p.m., the climbing harder and more time-consuming than he had anticipated.

Caught by darkness, he was forced to bivouac standing upright on a narrow ledge, holding a small handhold with one hand.

In 1978, Reinhold Messner returned to the Diamir Face and achieved the first completely solo ascent of an 8,000-metre (26,000 ft) peak.

[36] "Modern" superalpinism was brought to Nanga Parbat in 1988 with an unsuccessful attempt or two on the Rupal Face by Barry Blanchard, Mark Twight, Ward Robinson, and Kevin Doyle.

Nanga Parbat was first successfully climbed in winter on February 26, 2016, by a team consisting of Ali Sadpara, Alex Txikon, and Simone Moro.

[50] Previous attempts of winter climbing: On June 23, 2013, about 15 extremist militants wearing Gilgit Scouts uniforms shot and killed ten foreign climbers (one Lithuanian, three Ukrainians, two Slovaks, two Chinese, one Chinese-American, and one Nepali)[61] and one Pakistani guide at Base Camp.

The book attempts to narrate what went wrong on the expedition, set against the mountaineering history of the early twentieth century, the background of German politics in the 1930s, and the hardship and passion of life in the Sherpa valleys.

[64] The 1953 documentary Nanga Parbat 1953 was filmed and directed by cinematographer Hans Ertl, who participated in the expedition and climbed to camp 5 (6500m).

[67] Jean-Jacques Annaud's 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet opens with Heinrich Harrer's obsession to climb Nanga Parbat at the beginning of World War II.

In the 2017 TV series Dark, a German character mentions that "Nanga Parbat has been conquered" when explaining that the current year is 1953.