What should you see during a trip to Mongolia? This enormous country has a lot to offer to the traveller. Here are the most important sites you should visit, from cities to holy places, to the great national parks.
Ulaan Bataar, the capital
Ulan Bataar: the coldest capital city in the world has changed its name several times before taking the current name in 1924. The city perfectly combines tradition and modernity, so much so that modern palaces and architectures with a vague Soviet taste live side by side with the traditional nomads' gers. The center and core of the capital is Gengis Khan square where the Avenue of Peace begins (Enkh Taivny orgon Choloo) crossing Ulaan Bataar from one end to the other, punctuated by shops, restaurants, bars and cafès, similar to those of any other modern metropolis.
Ulaan Bataar is naturally the gateway to all other attractions to be seen on a tour of Mongolia, but it is also a good summary of the country itself and offers many interesting spots, including eight museums, some with Prehistoric artifacts and dinosaur bones. Ulaan Bataar hosts the National Museum of Mongolia, which explains the geography, geology and history of Mongolia through the findings displayed. Here you will see stuffed animals and dinosaur skeletons, found in the Gobi desert.
Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
80 km from Ulaan Bataar, you come across the first great national park of Mongolia, Gorkhi-Terelj National Park, in the valley of Terelj River. This park is very popular both with tourists and locals, partly for its closeness to the capital, where most of the population lives, partly for the wide range of activities that can be practised here, from hiking to ice-skating and skiing in winter. But the great attractions of Gorkhi Terelj Park are the huge granite rocks, especially a peculiar rock formation resembling a giant turtle.
Khustai National Park
Khustai (or Hustai) National Park is located 100 km from Ulaan Bataar and is famous for the Mongolian wild horse, the Takhi, which peacefully lives together with other wild species of the steppe, such as manul (wild cat), deer, gazelle, boar, wolf and lynx.
Kharkhorin (or Karakorum)
Kharkorin represents today what remains of the Gengis Khan's old capital from the thirteenth century. This city once attracted merchants and professional workers from all Asia, but was forsaken with the end of the Mongolian empire and the following destruction by the Manchurian army in 1388. The remains of the ancient city were used to build Erdene Zuu in the sixteenth century. Today there is still a town called Kharkhorin near the site, but it has nothing to do with the ancient glory: it is a perfectly Soviet-style settlement which anyway hosts some restaurants and ger camps for accommodation.
Erdene Zuu Monastery
On the site where once the city of Kharkhorin lay, in the sixteenth century the beautiful Buddhist monastery of Erdene Zuu was built. The complex is surrounded by walls and several stupas. Almost completely destroyed during the Communist period, today it shows only three main temples and some smaller shrines, two tombs and the Golden Stupa, the largest stupa in Mongolia. Today the monastery is no longer used for religious purposes, but is has been converted into a museum.
Hovsgol Lake
You come across Hovsgol Lake (or Khuvsgul according to some transcriptions) travelling north. It is one of the main natural attractions in Mongolia. This lake is the deepest of Central Asia and offers landscapes of rare beauty to visitors, being surrounded by spectacular mountains covered by forests. It contains over four islands and the lake itself has become a national park in 1992. This area also hosts the Ice Festival when the surface of the lake is frozen. During this event, attracting tourists, nomads and shepherds, many activities in the open air are practised, including games and competitions. The lake is also famous for the shamans, whom the luckiest travelers may meet.
Gobi Desert
Gobi desert occupies part of north-western China and south Mongolia and is the fifth desert in the world and the largest in Asia. Many important fossils were found here, including dinosaur eggs. During the Great Mongolian Empire, this desert played a key role since it was an unmissable stop along the Silh Road. The Gobi is divided into some macro-regions, such as the eastern Gobi desert, inhabited by the famous bactrian camel. Most of Gobi desert is rocky.
Bayan Zag or Flaming Cliffs
Bayanzag, in southern Mongolia, is what remains of an ancient prehistoric sea, where important fossils were found. This place is characterized by rocky formations of a picturesque red color: it was nicknamed Flaming Cliffs by the American explorer Roy Andrew Chapman in the 1920s. Bayanzag lies 85 km from Gobi Gurban Saikhan and it surely deserves a stop.
Tsagaan Suvraga
Tsagaan Suvraga gorge, also called "white stupa" due to the color of the rocks, is located along the southern border of Dundgovi province. The interesting feature of this place is the resemblance to a stone city, an effect created by the wind erosion over the centuries,
Mongolia is full of interesting sites, surely a journey that will remain impressed in your mind forever.
