Xépôn

Xépôn, also known as Tchepone and Sepon, is a village in the Sepone administrative district of Savannakhet Province in the country of Laos. It was located approximately 0.65 kilometres (0.40 mi) east of the intersection of the Sepon River and the Banghiang River. It was the target of Operation Lam Son 719 in 1971, an attempt by the armed forces of South Vietnam and the United States to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The village now known as Old Xépôn (Xépôn Kao in Laotian) was destroyed. In the 1990s, gold mining began at the site, helped to create Lao's largest private industry. Expansion of mining in the area has dislocated indigenous peoples' villages around Old Xépôn.

Xépôn was located on the north bank of the Sepon River at an altitude of 170 metres (560 ft). The countryside was mountainous, broken, and covered in subtropical forest. Average rainfall each year was 189 centimetres (74 in). In the rainy season (July to September), rainfall could be 41 to 51 centimetres (16 to 20 in) a month.

The Sepon River runs in a trough between two natural, high ridges. The trough itself is only 3.5 to 5 kilometres (2.2 to 3.1 mi) wide. This geologic feature begins just west of the town of Khe Sanh in Vietnam. The northern ridge ends near Xépôn, while the southern ridge continues for another 80 kilometres (50 mi). A shallow bowl forms between the ridges (permitting north-south traffic out of the valley) near the Laotian town of Ban Dong. The southern ridge turns southwest (followed by Route 9 on the north side and the Banghiang River on the south side), and ends near the town of Mường Phìn. However, the best break in these ridges occurred at Xépôn, where land traffic could move east, southeast, and southwest.

Human occupation of Xépôn goes back at least 2,000 years. There is evidence of a large copper mining complex, with some shafts up to 66 feet (20 m) deep, in the area around the village. Human burial sites from the same period are also located near these ancient copper mines, making them (as archeologist Charles Higham concludes) one of the most important burial sites in all of Southeast Asia.

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