Dong Ap Bia | |
Other Name: | Đồi A Bia |
Elevation M: | 937 |
Map: | Vietnam |
Map Size: | 200 |
Label Position: | left |
Listing: | List of mountains in Laos List of mountains in Vietnam |
Location: | Laos – Vietnam border |
Range: | Annamite Range |
Coordinates: | 16.25°N 118°W |
Dong Ap Bia (vi|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."[1]
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.[2]