diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 87a11b2089..aa4afd6550 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ Ref: https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/
 
 * (rpc) [#1179](https://github.com/evmos/ethermint/pull/1179) Fix gas used in traceTransaction response.
 * (rpc) [#1284](https://github.com/evmos/ethermint/pull/1284) Fix internal trace response upon incomplete `eth_sendTransaction` call.
+* (rpc) [#1340](https://github.com/evmos/ethermint/pull/1340) Fix error response when `eth_estimateGas` height provided is not found.
 
 ## [v0.19.2] - 2022-08-29
 
diff --git a/rpc/backend/call_tx.go b/rpc/backend/call_tx.go
index 96932f92c0..44b027b7f3 100644
--- a/rpc/backend/call_tx.go
+++ b/rpc/backend/call_tx.go
@@ -303,6 +303,12 @@ func (b *Backend) EstimateGas(args evmtypes.TransactionArgs, blockNrOptional *rp
 		GasCap: b.RPCGasCap(),
 	}
 
+	_, err = b.TendermintBlockByNumber(blockNr)
+	if err != nil {
+		// the error message imitates geth behavior
+		return 0, errors.New("header not found")
+	}
+
 	// From ContextWithHeight: if the provided height is 0,
 	// it will return an empty context and the gRPC query will use
 	// the latest block height for querying.
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests/test_types.py b/tests/integration_tests/test_types.py
index afc9dd9646..0318317dc1 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests/test_types.py
+++ b/tests/integration_tests/test_types.py
@@ -313,6 +313,8 @@ def test_estimate_gas(ethermint, geth):
     eth_rpc = ethermint.w3.provider
     geth_rpc = geth.w3.provider
     make_same_rpc_calls(eth_rpc, geth_rpc, "eth_estimateGas", [tx])
+    make_same_rpc_calls(eth_rpc, geth_rpc, "eth_estimateGas", [tx, "0x0"])
+    make_same_rpc_calls(eth_rpc, geth_rpc, "eth_estimateGas", [tx, "0x5000"])
     make_same_rpc_calls(eth_rpc, geth_rpc, "eth_estimateGas", [{}])