Tonnachau Mountain

At 340 meters (1,115 feet), this is the main island’s second-loftiest peak; it rises above Chuuk International Airport. One legend claims the god Sowukachaw lived there, while another considers it the head of an octopus whose tentacles (and power) radiate through the archipelago and beyond. But the mountain landed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places (Micronesia was an American-administered territory from 1947 to 1986) for its prehistoric middens and World War II Japanese summit fortifications. Remnants of Japanese bunkers also honeycomb its slopes.

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