Mongolia: Nine Attractions and Natural Wonders

The land of the eternal blue sky

Mongolia, landlocked between Russia and China, is the most sparsely populated sovereign state on earth — about 3.5 million people scattered across more than 1.5 million square kilometres, roughly 30 percent of them still living a partly or fully nomadic herding life in felt gers (yurts). It was the heart of the largest contiguous land empire in history under Genghis Khan in the 13th century, and its landscape today swings from the Gobi Desert in the south to forested mountains and grassy steppe in the north.

The nine below run from the capital out into the steppe, desert, and lake country. Summer (June to August) is the main travel season, when nomadic families are on their summer pastures and roads (few of them paved) are passable; winters are brutally cold.

1. The Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue

On the steppe 54 kilometres east of Ulaanbaatar, a 40-metre stainless-steel statue of Genghis Khan on horseback — the largest equestrian statue in the world — marks, by local tradition, the spot where he found a golden whip. Visitors walk up through the horse's chest and neck to a viewing platform on its head, and the visitor centre beneath and cultural complex covers the Mongol Empire's history. It is a striking, slightly surreal monument to a figure central to Mongolian identity.

It anchors a day trip that often continues to Terelj National Park nearby.

2. Gorkhi-Terelj National Park

Gorkhi-Terelj, close enough to Ulaanbaatar for a day trip or easy overnight, is a landscape of granite outcrops, pine forest, and open valleys — including Turtle Rock, a boulder naturally weathered into the shape of its namesake, and the Old Man Reading a Book, another rock named for what it resembles. It is many visitors' first taste of the steppe, with ger camps offering horse riding and short hikes.

It gives an easy introduction before heading further into the true wilderness.

3. Erdene Zuu Monastery

Erdene Zuu, built in 1585, is the first Buddhist monastery established in Mongolia, constructed partly from stones of Karakorum, the 13th-century Mongol capital, whose ruins lie nearby. Its outer wall is lined with stupas; it was largely destroyed in the communist purge of 1939, served as a museum from 1947, and since 1990 has again been an active monastery as well as a museum. It sits within the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.

It is the centrepiece of a visit to the historic Orkhon Valley region.

4. Lake Khövsgöl

Lake Khövsgöl, in the northwest near the Russian border, is one of the world's ancient lakes, more than 2 million years old and among the most pristine, holding almost 70 percent of Mongolia's fresh water and traditionally considered sacred. It is ringed by taiga forest and mountains, and nearby live the Tsaatan, a small community of semi-nomadic reindeer herders, the only reindeer herders in Mongolia.

It is a long journey from Ulaanbaatar, usually reached by internal flight to Mörön followed by a drive.

5. Ulaanbaatar

Ulaanbaatar, the capital, is a city of contrasts — Soviet-era apartment blocks and glass towers ringed by sprawling ger districts where many nomadic families have settled. Gandantegchinlen Monastery, with a 26-metre gilded statue of Avalokiteshvara, was closed in the 1939 purges but reopened in 1944 and was the country's only active monastery until 1989; Sükhbaatar Square, the National Museum of Mongolia, and the Zaisan Memorial hilltop viewpoint round out a city visit.

It is the arrival point for almost every trip and the base for onward travel.

6. The Naadam Festival

Naadam, held in Ulaanbaatar from 11 to 13 July and listed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010, is Mongolia's national festival, centred on the "three manly games": wrestling, archery, and horse racing, the last contested by child jockeys over cross-country courses of 15 to 30 kilometres, reflecting skills still central to nomadic life. The main event fills Ulaanbaatar's National Sports Stadium, but smaller local Naadams take place in towns and provinces across the country around the same dates, often with a more intimate, community feel.

It is Mongolia's biggest national holiday and worth planning a trip around.

7. Bayanzag, the Flaming Cliffs

Bayanzag, named the "Flaming Cliffs" by the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews for how the red sandstone glows at sunset, is where a 1920s expedition made the first scientifically documented discovery of dinosaur eggs — the site has yielded many other important dinosaur fossils since. Walking the eroded gullies at golden hour, with the cliffs turning deep orange-red, is one of the most atmospheric experiences in the desert.

It is a common stop on a multi-day Gobi Desert itinerary.

8. The Gobi Desert

The Gobi, covering much of southern Mongolia, is a cold desert of gravel plains, rugged mountains, and the towering Khongoryn Els "singing dunes" — typically around 80 metres high but rising to 300 metres at their apex, and famous for the low humming sound the sand makes as it shifts. Two-humped Bactrian camels, herded by local families, are both transport and sight; the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park also holds the Yolyn Am ("Vulture's Mouth") gorge, whose ice field, several metres thick by the end of winter, now tends to melt by September.

Multi-day 4x4 trips, staying in ger camps, are the standard way to see it.

9. Nomadic ger life

Staying with, or near, a nomadic herding family in their ger is, for many visitors, the real heart of a Mongolia trip — sharing salted milk tea and dairy products, watching the daily herding of horses, sheep, goats, and yaks between pastures, and seeing a way of life that has continued in recognisable form for centuries even as much of the world around it changes fast.

Most ger-camp stays are arranged through tour operators who can also translate and explain local customs.

Mongolia rewards time: distances are vast and roads mostly unpaved, so a worthwhile trip is usually 10 days to two weeks, combining Ulaanbaatar and Terelj with either the Gobi Desert or the Khövsgöl/Orkhon Valley regions to the north, rather than trying to cover the whole country at once.