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Mongolia is in many ways a truly unique Asian country, bordering on the largest (in terms of area they occupy) states of the world: Russia and China. Do not believe me?
Then here are some numbers for you: in terms of size, Mongolia is in 18th place among the countries of our planet, and in terms of population – only in 137th.
Imagine, the population density here is less than 2 people per square kilometer (you can drive for hours in some parts of the country and not meet ANYONE!). Here, there are 13 horses for every person (we are not talking about sheep yet).
In addition, Mongolia is distinguished by a very rich natural diversity and an abundance of a wide variety of landscapes: in the north of the country there are dense coniferous forests and large turquoise lakes, and in the south there is a dry and lifeless desert, through which strong winds walk.
Here you will see velvet green hills, picturesque rocks, high snowy mountains with deep gorges, and fast clear rivers. As for the climate of the country: the annual temperature difference here sometimes reaches 90 degrees Celsius – from -45º in winter to +45º in summer.
What else can surprise Mongolia besides nature? Of course, with its rich history and culture, carefully preserved and revered.
The Mongols remember very well that they once controlled most of Eurasia. (And they seem to be nostalgic for those times, since Genghis Khan is the most popular historical figure here lately).
In this country, high-rise buildings and traditional yurts standing literally next to each other are very harmoniously combined. Right in the middle of the city, you can find a large Buddhist monastery or datsan next to a modern shopping center.
Let’s get acquainted with the main sights of Mongolia.
10 Lake Ubsu-Nur (Uvs Nur)
This salty drainless lake is located on the border of Mongolia and Russia (or rather, a small part of it belongs to our Republic of Tuva).
Ubsu-Nur is the largest body of water in Mongolia. Its length is 84 km, and its width is 79 km (however, the depth does not exceed 20 meters). They say that the water in it is most similar in composition to the Black Sea.
The lake is part of the Ubsunur Reserve, on the territory of which there is a dense taiga, and severe glaciers, and steppes, and even a desert with sand dunes.
Of course, there are a large number of animals and birds, including rare ones. The places here are completely deaf (there is not a single settlement on the banks of the Ubsu-Nur, the surroundings are also practically uninhabited). But what a great fishing on this lake!
In addition, in the immediate vicinity of Ubsu-Nur, you can see a lot of ancient mounds, stones with runic inscriptions, rock petroglyphs and other archaeological sites, because the tribes of the Scythians, Huns, Yenisei Kyrgyz and other peoples once roamed in these parts.
9. Hustain Nuruu National Park
Khustain-Nuruu is located about 100 km west of the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar. It was created in 1993 to preserve local natural ecosystems and historical monuments, as well as to restore the population of Przewalski’s horses (which by the 1960s were almost killed – for meat – by poachers).
Today, about 200 individuals of these rare wild horses live in the park. A research center operates here, collaborating with biologists from Europe and Japan and studying not only Przewalski’s horses, but also other animals found in the national park, such as roe deer, bearded deer, golden eagles, black storks, etc. An interesting fact: local residents are not forbidden to roam around the park with their herds, which from time to time creates a threat of hybridization of wild horses with domestic ones.
For tourists there are hiking, horseback and car routes. Khustain Nuruu’s special “trick” is that for just $100 anyone can give a name to a newborn Przewalski’s horse foal. This is very honorable, because such horses are considered sacred animals among Buddhist Mongols.
8. Monastery Amarbayasgalant
The Buddhist monastery Amarbayasgalant (one of the three largest in Mongolia) is located near the city of Erdenet, about 360 km north of Ulaanbaatar.
According to legend, once the monks, who were looking for a place for their future refuge, met two playing boys in the steppe. One of them was called Amar (“calm”), and the second Bayasgalant (“joyful”). The monks considered this a lucky sign and founded here Amarbayasgalant (“Monastery of Serene Joy”). Its construction went on for 10 years – from 1727 to 1736.
The architecture of the monastery is mainly Chinese (with elements of Tibetan). In addition to 14 temples, there were once many residential and outbuildings here – by the beginning of the 8th century, up to 1937 thousand monks lived in Amarbayasgalant. But in XNUMX, a broad anti-religious campaign began in then-Soviet Mongolia. Many Buddhist places of worship were destroyed.
Amarbayasgalant was a little more fortunate – all secondary buildings burned down here, but several main temples survived (and were abandoned and uninhabited until the end of the 1980s). In 1988 it was restored. Today, about 60 monks live in the monastery.
7. The ancient city of Karakoram and Erdene-Zuu Monastery
Almost in the very center of Mongolia, about 370 km southwest of Ulan Bator, is the modern city of Kharkhorin, in which about 9 thousand people live. And in the 1220-1260s. on this place was the capital of the Mongol Empire, Karakorum (Mong. “black stones”), founded by Genghis Khan himself and built up by his son Khan Ogedei.
It was here that the sovereigns of neighboring countries, including Russian princes, came as a sign of humility and reverence. In 1260, after the conquest of China, Khan Kublai moved his capital to Shangdu, and in 1264 to Beijing. Shortly thereafter, the Karakoram was nearly destroyed by the Manchus. Today, little remains of it, but the Mongols still consider this place holy.
In the summer of 2011, a museum was organized on the site of the ancient city, where tourists can see the restored palace of Khan Ogedei, the quarter of artisans, several temples, etc. Valuable archaeological artifacts of the XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries are brought here from the territory of the entire Uverkhangay aimag. The museum is very interesting, and it is equipped with the latest modern museum technologies.
By the way, the place of the ancient Mongolian capital (before the advent of Kharkhorin) was once again inhabited in 1585, when, at the behest of Khan Abatai, the first stationary Buddhist monastery in Mongolia Erdene-Zuu was founded here (translated from Mong. “Hundred Treasures”).
Once upon a time, there really were 100 temples in it (and more than 10 thousand monks lived on the territory of the monastery). Today, only 3 of them remain, since Erdene-Zuu has been destroyed more than once in its long history (including in the 1930s, during the anti-religious campaign).
Now in Erdene-Zuu there is only one temple – Lavran. The rest are museum expositions, which contain valuable relics, including the statue of the Buddha Ihe-Zuu. There is also a small Buddhist school here.
6. Lake Hubsugul
Khubsugul is the deepest and most beautiful lake in Mongolia. It is often called the “little brother of Baikal” for the similarity of its shape (long and slightly curved), as well as for the purity and transparency of the water – just like from Baikal, you can safely drink from Khubsugul directly from the side of the boat.
The picturesque coastal landscape of these two crystal lakes (low mountains covered with dense taiga) is very similar. By the way, they are located in the same fault in the earth’s crust, and the distance between the southern tip of Lake Baikal and the northern edge of Khubsugul is only 230 km.
Khubsugul is located near the Russian-Mongolian border (22 km). The length of the lake is 136 km, the width is 36,5 km, and the greatest depth is more than 260 meters. And, unlike Ubsu-Nur, there are residential settlements here. In addition, there are about 30 camp sites on the shores of the lake (in which yurts are installed instead of houses), and they are almost never empty.
Mostly tourists, including from Russia, come here for kayaking, hiking in beautiful places and, of course, excellent fishing, because
Khubsugul is fabulously rich in fish (including lenok, grayling, whitefish, omul, minnow, taimen, etc.). Well, where else can you ride in a cart pulled by a real furry sarlyk yak?
5. Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
Today there are 22 national parks in Mongolia. But the most beautiful of them (both according to tourists and the Mongols themselves) is Gorkhi-Terelj.
It is located just 60 km from Ulaanbaatar, on the ridges of the Khentei Highlands, and is most famous for its bizarre remnant rocks, many of which resemble living creatures in their shape: a huge tortoise, a hare, a sleeping dinosaur, etc. Residents of the capital are very fond of going to these places for the weekend – about 60 camp sites (with traditional yurts) and 5 rest houses have been built here.
Gorkhi Terelj is really very beautiful. Lynxes, wolves, bears and other wild animals are found on the territory of the park, as well as large herds of domestic yaks and horses graze.
Here you can walk around the surroundings on a camel, climb a long staircase with steep steps to the Buddhist temple for meditation Aryaabal (which offers a magnificent view of the picturesque valley surrounded by rocks), and also visit a special feature of Gorkhi-Terelj – a dinosaur park, where their powerful figures are recreated in full size from reinforced concrete (although recently they have somehow “been worn out”).
4. Gobi Desert
The Gobi is the largest desert in Asia, and most of it is in Mongolia. But, if you imagine the Gobi as a huge continuous mass of sand without end and edge, covered with dunes, then, to put it mildly, you are mistaken.
In fact, here you can find a variety of landscapes: low mountains with labyrinths of narrow gorges; and the green steppe with stiff grass, on which such a wind walks that it is difficult to stand on one’s feet; and red sandy cliffs (for example, the Bayanzag massif, famous among tourists, very reminiscent of the Arizona cliffs in the USA); and quite fertile oases with small rivers or picturesque lakes; and, yes, real – unexpectedly high – dunes of fine, fine white sand. And the Gobi is not as lifeless as it is commonly believed.
Saiga, wild camels, gazelles, argali, wolves, and even bears live here. In addition, several dozen camps with their herds roam its steppe areas.
The Gobi is also the largest dinosaur cemetery in the world. Due to the dry climate, their skeletons have been perfectly preserved here to our time. From time to time, new exhibits valuable for paleontologists are found in these places (they are “blown out” of the sand – in the most literal sense – by a constant wind).
By the way, in Bayanzag, the American scientist Chapman Andrews in 1920 for the first time in the world found whole dinosaur eggs (before that, only pieces of the shell were found).
3. National Park Gurvansaikhan
Gurvansaikhan, in fact, is a part of the Gobi. But we singled it out separately, because in this area of uXNUMXbuXNUMXbthe desert the concentration of attractions “rolls over”.
Firstly, in the national park there is a special variety of flora and fauna (especially for such arid places). And you just can’t imagine how beautiful the desert is after the long-awaited rain, when everything blooms at the same time and very rapidly, finally acquiring the brightest colors!
Secondly, it is in this area that the largest number of primitive fossils are found. And thirdly, there are several unique natural places in Gurvansaikhan: Singing Sands, Yolyn-Am gorge, Hermin-Tsav canyon and Tsagaan-Agui cave.
Singing Sands (Mong. Khongoryn Els) are the most impressive dunes in the desert. The width of this sandy area is about 12 km, the length is about 100 km, and the height is from 80 to 300 meters. In strong winds, grains of sand rubbing against each other make a strange sound, sometimes very loud and even creepy. At the bottom of the Yolyn-Am gorge, even in hot summers, thick ice does not melt.
The red canyon of Hermin-Tsav is famous for its bizarre relief, as well as for numerous saker falcons and black vultures. And the Tsagaan-Agui cave – with walls covered with calcite crystals and many Paleolithic artifacts found here.
2. Monument to Genghis Khan in Tsongzhin Boldog
Want to see the largest equestrian statue in the world? Ok, then you have to drive 54 km east of Ulaanbaatar. Believe me – you will not miss it for anything, because the silvery Genghis Khan shining in the sun can be seen from afar.
The height of the statue itself is 40 meters, in addition, it stands on a high pedestal (which is a small museum dedicated, of course, to Genghis Khan and the times when the Mongol Empire spread to the floor of Eurasia).
This imposing monument opened in September 2008. Gradually, more and more statues of equestrian Mongolian riders appear around it. According to the plan of its creators, there will be an extensive theme park dedicated to the life and military affairs of the Mongols of the XNUMXth century.
By the way, 36 columns of the pedestal symbolize 36 khans who ruled Mongolia after Genghis Khan. And on the head of the horse, on which the great warrior sits, there is an observation deck with a magnificent view.
Why was the monument erected here? According to legend, young Temujin found in these steppes, on the banks of the Tuul River, a golden whip, which, allegedly, became a sign of the special favor of the gods towards him and predicted his great fate.
By the way, from the observation deck of the statue of Genghis Khan, you can quite clearly see another huge monument being built a few kilometers away – the statue of Temujin’s mother Hoelun (which is also very revered by the Mongols).
1. Ulaanbaatar
And finally, the main attraction of Mongolia is its capital Ulaanbaatar.
You can talk about it for hours, but, alas, we have to mention only the most basic.
Firstly, the city is interesting even externally: it is located in the picturesque valley of the Tuul River, surrounded by mountains, and from one of its highest points (from the Zaisan memorial, erected in honor of the victory of the Soviet-Mongolian army at Khalkhin Gol), you can see how it is harmoniously diverse: for example, modern skyscrapers rise in the center of Ulaanbaatar (and some of them are very interesting in terms of architecture), nearby you can see the bright Viva City district specially built for young and promising specialists; most of the city is practically no different from the cities of the Russian provinces – here are the same panel “Khrushchev” (more precisely, “tsedenbalovka”) with playgrounds for children and benches in the yards; while the outskirts are a solid “sea” of traditional yurts (often surrounded by fences that mark the plots of individual owners).
On a busy street in the stream of cars you can see a man on a horse. And all this looks quite natural and “one-style”.
45% of the total population of Mongolia (1,4 million people) lives in Ulaanbaatar. Most of the city center is a solid monument of culture. From what you can see here, we highly recommend the following attractions:
• Genghis Khan Square (former Sukhe Bator Square) with a monument to the leader of the Mongolian people’s revolution Damdin Sukhe Bator on horseback and an impressive monument of Genghis Khan, “built into” the building of the Government Palace;
• Nearby monument to the famous Marco Polo;
• Monument to the Silk Road (a whole caravan of bronze camels);
• Buddha Park (with a “golden” 23-meter statue of Buddha Shakyamuni);
• Beatles Square with a monument to this group (opposite the local Central Department Store);
• A real Buddhist monastery Gandan (founded in 1835);
• Palace of the Bogdo Khan (Bogdo Gegen) – the head of the Buddhist community in Mongolia;
• Temple complex Choijin Lamyn Sum – a museum of Buddhist art.