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.

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.