Dong Ap Bia

Dong Ap Bia
Đồi A Bia
Dong Ap Bia Laos – Vietnam border
Highest point
Elevation	937 m (3,074 ft)
Listing	List of mountains in Laos List of mountains in Vietnam
Coordinates	16°15′N 107°11′E
Geography
Location	Laos – Vietnam border
Parent range	Annamite Range

Dong Ap Bia (Vietnamese: Đồi A Bia, Ap Bia Mountain) is a mountain on the Laotian border of South Vietnam in Thừa Thiên–Huế Province. Rising from the floor of the western A Shau Valley, it is a looming, solitary massif, unconnected to the ridges of the surrounding Annamite range. It dominates the northern valley, towering some 937 metres above sea level. Snaking down from its highest peak are a series of ridges and fingers, one of the largest extending southeast to a height of 900 metres, another reaching south to a 916-metre peak. The entire mountain is a rugged, uninviting wilderness blanketed in double- and triple-canopy jungle, dense thickets of bamboo, and waist-high elephant grass. Local Montagnard tribesmen call Ap Bia "the mountain of the crouching beast."

History

In May 1969, a ridge of Dong Ap Bia, "Hill 937" in contemporary US military terminology, was the site of the Battle of Hamburger Hill, a controversial battle of the Vietnam War fought by the United States and South Vietnam against North Vietnamese forces.