Gobi and Kharakhorum Tour
The Gobi's main sights, then north to Kharakhorum, the old capital of the Mongol Empire, and Khugnu Tarna on the way back.
The Gobi and the old capital
The Gobi is one of the most popular routes in Mongolia and one of the largest deserts in Asia. It is mostly low hills and wide steppe. Many people imagine the Gobi as a desert like the Sahara, but it is completely different: you will even see ice in a gorge in summer. The Mongolian Gobi is a great combination of high mountains, sand dunes, vast steppe and spectacular valleys, and at the Flaming Cliffs the American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews found the first dinosaur eggs and nests known to science. This tour adds Kharakhorum, the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire.
Day by Day
The scarp of Tsagaan Suvarga is in Ulziit soum of Dundgovi province. Its sheer east-facing slope looks like the ruins of an ancient city from a distance. The cliff is 30 metres high and 100 metres wide, and the wind has shaped it over thousands of years. It was once the floor of a sea, and the different colours in the rock are layers of sediment laid down over millions of years.
Yol valley lies in the north-east of the Zuun Saikhan mountains and has been one of the main attractions of the Gobi for decades. Very wide at the entrance, it gradually narrows into a remarkable gorge. In spring a thick corridor of ice two or three kilometres long winds through the gorge, and it often lasts into July. We also walk into Mukhar Shivert canyon, where a frozen waterfall stands for most of the year.
The Khongor sand dunes in Sevrei soum are the largest and most spectacular dunes in Mongolia. Known as the "singing dunes", they are up to 300 metres high, 20 kilometres wide and about 100 kilometres long. They are bordered by lush green vegetation along the small Khongor river, which is fed by underground springs from the surrounding mountains.
The Flaming Cliffs are in Umnugovi, the South Gobi province. Their Mongolian name, Bayanzag, means "rich in saxaul", an endangered Central Asian tree 2 to 9 metres tall whose roots protect the soil from erosion. Important palaeontological discoveries have been made here, above all by the American Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s: fossilised dinosaur eggs and specimens of Velociraptor. The nickname "Flaming Cliffs" comes from the orange-red rock of the cliffs.
Ongi monastery is the ruin of a large monastery on the bank of the Ongi river, in Saikhan Ovoo soum of Dundgovi province. It had 28 temples and other buildings, and about 1,000 lamas lived there before it was destroyed in the Stalinist purges of the 1930s. Some of its stupas are still standing.
Kharakhorum was one of the most important cities in the history of the Silk Road. It was founded by Chinggis Khaan in 1220, but it grew into the capital of the Mongol Empire in the 1230s under his son Ogedei. The Mongols had a profound impact on trade across Central Asia, as their vast empire connected east and west. We explore the highlights of the city and visit Erdene Zuu monastery.
Khugnu Khan nature reserve covers 46,990 hectares in Rashaant soum of Bulgan province, at the point where three provinces meet. Alongside its mountains, the reserve has a remarkable stretch of sand dunes about 80 kilometres long, and the scenery is a striking mix of desert, mountain, river and green grassland. There are two monasteries in the reserve.
Mongolia is one of the last places in the world where nomadic herding is still a common way of life. We visit a nomadic family to experience the real culture of Mongolian nomads, and see how they herd their livestock and make dairy products and traditional clothes. Afterwards we drive back to Ulaanbaatar.
