A report on Annamite Range, Phou Bia and Laos

The Annamite Range or the Annamese Mountains (Chaîne annamitique; ພູ ຫລວງ Phou Luang; Dãy (núi) Trường Sơn) is a major mountain range of eastern Indochina, extending approximately 1100 km through Laos, Vietnam, and a small area in northeast Cambodia.

Phou Bia (Lao: ພູເບັ້ຍ) is the highest mountain in Laos.

It is in the Annamese Cordillera, at the southern limit of the Xiangkhoang Plateau in Xiangkhouang Province.

The highest points of the range are the 2819 m-high Phou Bia, the 2720 m-high Phu Xai Lai Leng and the 2598 m-high Ngọc Linh (Ngoc Pan).

An ancient human skull was recovered in 2009 from the Tam Pa Ling Cave in the Annamite Mountains in northern Laos; the skull is at least 46,000 years old, making it the oldest modern human fossil found to date in Southeast Asia.

Its thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains, the highest of which is Phou Bia at 2818 m, with some plains and plateaus.