Mount Hagen

Mount Hagen is the third-largest city in Papua New Guinea and the capital of Western Highlands Province, sitting in the Wahgi Valley at an elevation of 1,677 meters. The valley was first reached by Europeans in 1933, when explorers Mick Leahy, Dan Leahy and Jim Taylor made aerial and overland surveys that brought them into contact with its heavily populated tribes, and the town grew from an airstrip that opened in 1934. It takes its name from the nearby Mount Hagen volcano, itself named for the German colonial officer Curt von Hagen, and the 2013 census recorded 46,256 residents.