The Annamite Range is a mountain range of eastern Indochina, which extends approximately 1100 km (700 miles) through Laos, Vietnam, and a small area in northeast Cambodia. It is known in Vietnamese as Dãy Trường Sơn, in Lao as Phou Luang, and in French as the Chaîne Annamitique. The mountain range is also referred to variously as Annamese Range, Annamese Mountains, Annamese Cordillera, Annamite Mountains and Annamite Cordillera.
The highest point of the range is the Ngọc Linh (Ngoc Pan), 2,598 m. It is located at the northwestern fringe of the Triassic Kontum Massif, in central Vietnam.[1]
The Annamite Range runs parallel to the Vietnamese coast, in a gentle curve which divides the basin of the Mekong River from Vietnam's narrow coastal plain along the South China Sea. The eastern slopes of the range rise steeply from the plain, and the eastern slope is drained by numerous short rivers. It has three main plateaux, from north to south: Phouane Plateau, Nakai Plateau and Bolaven Plateau.
Laos lies mostly within the Mekong basin, west of the divide, although most of Houaphan Province and a portion of Xiangkhoang Province (where the famous Plain of Jars is located) lie east of the divide. Most of Vietnam lies east of the divide, although Vietnam's Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) region lies west of the divide, in the Mekong basin.
The range is home to rare creatures such as the recently-discovered Annamite rabbit and the antelope-like saola, the large gaur and the Indochinese tiger.
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