Ball’s Pyramid lies about twelve miles southeast of Lord Howe Island in the Pacific Ocean. The formation is a remnant of a shield volcano and caldera that formed about 7 million years ago. Ball’s Pyramid is based on the Lord Howe Rise, part of the submerged continent of Zealandia.

The Ball’s Pyramid is 1,843 feet high, while measuring only 3,609 feet in length and 984 feet across, making it the tallest volcanic stack in the world. Ball’s Pyramid has a few satellite islets. On the west side about 2,600 feet away is Observatory Rock and Wheatsheaf Islet. On the southeast side of Ball’s Pyramid about 2 miles away is a pinnacle called Southeast Rock.

The pyramid was named after Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball, who discovered it in 1788. The first person to go ashore is believed to have been Henry Wilkinson in 1882, who was a geologist at the New South Wales Department of Mines.

Steep, eroded, and formed about seven million years ago, the Ball’s Pyramid is positioned in the center of a submarine shelf and is surrounded by rough seas, making any approach difficult. It sits off Australia, in the South Pacific Ocean approximately 400 miles northeast of Sydney, New South Wales.

It was first successfully climbed by a party from Sydney Rockclimbing Club in 1965 led by Bryden Allen.