The Funeral Mountains are a short, arid mountain range in the United States along the California-Nevada border approximately 100 mi (160 km) west of Las Vegas. The mountains are considered a subrange of the Amargosa Range that form the eastern wall of Death Valley.
The Amargosa Desert lies along the eastern flank of the range in Nevada. The crest of the range is within Death Valley National Park. The range connects to the Grapevine Mountains on the north and Black Mountains on the south. According to information provided by the Bureau of Land Management web site, the highest peak in the range is 5300 ft (1616 m). The highest point in the range is Pyramid Peak, at 6703 ft (2043 m).
The first movement of Ferde Grofe's Death Valley Suite is a musical portrayal of pioneer settlers drudging through the dry craggy peaks of the Funeral Mountains.
Famous quotes containing the words funeral and/or mountains:
“Up, black, striped and damasked like the chasuble
At a funeral mass, the skunk’s tail
Paraded the skunk.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)
“Have We not made the earth as a cradle
and the mountains as pegs?
And We created you in pairs,
and We appointed your sleep for a rest;
and We appointed night for a garment,
and We appointed day for a livelihood.
And We have built above you seven strong ones,
and We appointed a blazing lamp
and have sent down out of the rain-clouds water cascading
that We may bring forth thereby grain and plants,
and gardens luxuriant.”
—Qur’an, “The Tiding” 78:6-16, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)