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What is known about Mongolia to a simple Russian man in the street? There are many endless steppes, the Gobi desert, and Genghis Khan was born in this country. That, perhaps, is all. However, a country with such a long history and cultural identity is full of other equally interesting features.
Delicious food, interesting customs, stunning landscapes and simple-hearted people are what thousands of tourists visit Mongolia every year.
Of course, the service here is not as well developed as in the countries of Western Europe, there are no elite ski resorts or azure beaches. However, a tourist who knows a lot about oriental flavor and philosophy will definitely want to visit this country full of unsolved mysteries.
Here are 10 interesting facts about Mongolia.
10 felt city
American Vice President Henry Wallace once called Ulaanbaatar “felt city“. If you take the Mongolian coat of arms, you can see that it is made of wood and wool. According to the Mongolian Wool Producers Association, Mongolian wool is tight and porous, which creates a vacuum environment, which is why it is in great demand.
9. demand for culture
Almost three million Mongols, who inherited their vast lands from their ancestors, are co-owners of the State Opera and Ballet Theater. Famous artists and dancers from such world-famous theaters as the Boston Ballet and the Russian Bolshoi Theater have performed in this theater.
On the stages of Mongolian theaters – in the capital and in the countryside – classical and modern plays are regularly performed. The exhibition halls showcase contemporary art.
Mongolia is home to a creative environment for internationally recognized and award-winning filmmakers, Olympic champions and internationally renowned scientists. Every Mongolian, whether living in Mongolia or abroad, is a proud modern nomad.
8. A tidal wave of young blood
A third of the population of Mongolia are residents aged 18 to 35 years. Therefore, it can be said with confidence that the future of this country is in good hands, since many of the younger generation study abroad and return to apply what they have learned at home.
7. Part of the famous Silk Road
Mongolia is the center of all Mongolian tribes and cultures. Historically, one of the routes of the Silk Road and the Tar Road passed through Mongolia. Now the Trans-Siberian Railway runs through the country from north to south and is a great way to get around for those who like to travel by train.
6. Genghis Khan – the most famous Mongol
Historians consider Genghis Khan the founder of Mongolia. He achieved colossal power by uniting most of the scattered nomadic tribes living in the territory of modern Mongolia and created one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world, which was second in size only to the British Empire of the XNUMXth century.
In 25 years, the warriors of Genghis Khan conquered a vast territory and subjugated more people than the Roman Empire in 4 centuries. Everyone knows the birthplace of Genghis Khan, but the place of his burial remains a mystery. Legend has it that in order to keep this secret, 2000 people who saw Genghis Khan’s funeral were killed by 800 soldiers. After that, the soldiers killed themselves.
The monument to Genghis Khan near the capital of Mongolia is considered the tallest equestrian statue in the world (40 meters). Long before the conquest of Mongolia by China, this country captured China.
In the XIII century, a large nation was enslaved by the grandson of Genghis Khan – Kublai, who became the first emperor of the Chinese Yuan dynasty.
5. The story of the crying camel
The film of that title was nominated for the Best Documentary Feature at the 2005 Academy Awards. “The Story of the Weeping Camel” provides a rare opportunity for the viewer to see the mysterious Mongolia from the inside.
Biamasuren Dava made the documentary in 2003 with director and cameraman Luigi Falorni while studying at the Television and Film College in Munich.
The documentary shows the inner connection of the Mongols with nature. When amazing folk music plays in this picture, the viewer can feel how the connection between the mother camel and her child, whom she rejected, is being restored.
4. Mongolian Cashmere
400-meter sand dunes are not the only things that Mongolia is famous for nowadays. Gobi Cashmere is the first cashmere company in Mongolia, ranked fifth among its competitors with more than 20 branded stores worldwide.
3. Mongolian cuisine
Mongolian cuisine is replete with high-calorie meat dishes, which are unlikely to suit fans of a healthy diet, but lovers of tasty and satisfying food will really like it.
In the capital of this country, there are now many restaurants serving real authentic Mongolian food, and it is not only Mongolian lamb, as most tourists expect.
Of course, meat is the main component of Mongolian cuisine, which was born in accordance with the lifestyle of the ancestors of modern Mongols and their climate. Today, Modern Nomads Restaurant, one of Mongolia’s leading restaurant chains, serves traditional dishes made with contemporary local ingredients.
For example, “deer wigwam” is a dish of fried lamb ribs that looks just like a reindeer herder’s tipi. “Great Mongol Empire” – This is another dish that should be ordered, because it allows the tourist to try different traditional Mongolian dishes at once.
National women’s clothing in Mongolia, especially headwear and accessories, is traditionally decorated with various precious stones, including red coral. But where do these corals come from? They all happen from the Mongolian Gobi – an ancient seabed rich in rare red corals.
Roy Andrews is a famous traveler and archaeologist from the United States, thanks to his work in the early twenties of the last century, bones of extinct creatures were found in the Gobi. They were the first finds of rare species of prehistoric animals. There is a version that Andrews became the prototype of the famous movie character – the adventurer Indiana Jones.
1. Alphabet
Prior to the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet in 1946, the Mongols used a vertical script containing only 26 characters (excluding signs for foreign letters). Today, the traditional type, along with writing, is turning into a true art form.
The modern alphabet of Mongolia differs from the Russian alphabet by the presence of two other letters: Ө and Y.
The introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet in Mongolia was necessary to establish a direct connection between the spoken language of the majority of the inhabitants and the written language. Then there was an opinion that the obsolete Mongolian script was inaccessible for most ordinary Mongols to study, since the forms of words used in it had not been used to a large extent for a long time. In this case, people would have to learn from scratch the language of the Middle Ages, which was not familiar to most of the inhabitants of modern Mongolia.
The introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet was carried out on the basis of the Khalkha dialect (thus, when the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced, the pronunciation cai was finally fixed behind the word “chai”, while the letters h and c did not differ by ear in the old Mongolian language).