Mount Alifan

Mount Alifan, in Agat on southwestern Guam, is the highest point overlooking Agat Bay, giving it both a commanding place in the landscape and strategic military importance. That role became especially significant in 1944, when fierce fighting took place there as American forces moved inland from the beaches around Agat Bay during the U.S. invasion of Guam after four years of Japanese occupation in the Second World War. The mountain also marks a loss in Guam’s natural history: it and two nearby peaks were once home to the Mount Alifan partula snail, a species first described in 1925 and declared extinct by 1992.

Guam