The Annamite Range or the Annamese Mountains (French: Chaîne annamitique; Lao: ພູ ຫລວງ Phou Luang; Vietnamese: Dãy Trường Sơn, "the thousand-mile highland") is a major mountain range of eastern Indochina, extending approximately 1,100 km (680 mi) through Laos, Vietnam, and a small area in northeast Cambodia.
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 slope of the range rises steeply from the plain, drained by numerous short rivers.
The name "Annam" is the Vietnamese pronunciation and terminology of Chinese: 安南 (pinyin: Ān Nán), meaning "the tranquil south" referring to Vietnam.
[2] The range is home to rare creatures such as the recently discovered Annamite rabbit and the antelope-like saola, the Douc langur, the large gaur, the Chinese pangolin, and formerly the Indochinese tiger.