Is the Grand Canyon the Deepest Gorge on Earth?

Anyone who has been to the Grand Canyon in Arizona would have trouble believing that the awesome gorge isn't the deepest on earth.

True, the Grand Canyon is the largest canyon in the world, over 215 miles long and more than 12 miles across at some points, but the Grand Canyon is "only" about 7,000 feet deep.

However, Hell's Canyon, on the border between Idaho and Oregon, measures 7,900 feet from one side of the gorge down to the river that lies at its bottom!

There are also places in some mountain ranges where peaks are more than 8,000 feet above the bottom of a neighboring gorge. One gorge of this sort in the Himalaya Mountains is 18,000 feet deep!