The Riphean Mountains are mountains mentioned by authors of classical antiquity (Apollonius of Rhodes, Aristotle, Hecataeus of Miletus, Hippocrates, Ptolemy and others), but whose location is unknown.
Noah Webster wrote that the earliest geographers applied the term to the Alps in Switzerland and claimed that they are the source of the Danube. Later Roman writers applied the term to mountains in the north of Europe or Asia. Pomponius Mela placed them within the Arctic Circle. Pliny the Elder assigned them to the Ural Mountains. All sources agree that the Riphean mountains were cold and blanketed in snow.[1]
The Montes Riphaeus mountain range on the Moon is named after the Riphean Mountains.
The Riphean geochronological period was also named after the Riphean Mountains, referring to the Ural Mountains.[2]