Natural features
Gobi Desert and Khongoryn Els
Ömnögovi
The Gobi isn't all sand, but Khongoryn Els are huge 'singing dunes', up to 300 m high and 100 km long, which hum when the sand slides.
Travel tips in Mongolia
Natural features
Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
Ulaanbaatar
A national park of granite rocks, forests and grassy valleys about 70 km from Ulaanbaatar, the easiest place to taste the Mongolian countryside.
Natural features
Khövsgöl Lake
Khövsgöl
A vast, clear freshwater lake in the far north of Mongolia, near the Russian border, surrounded by mountains and larch forest, called the 'Blue Pearl'.
Tours and activities
Naadam Festival, Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia's great national festival, held on 11 to 13 July, with the 'three manly games': wrestling, horse racing, with child jockeys riding across th…
Historic sites
Erdene Zuu Monastery, Kharkhorin
Kharkhorin, Övörkhangai
Mongolia's oldest surviving Buddhist monastery, founded in 1585 near the ruins of Karakorum, Genghis Khan's capital, surrounded by a wall topped with…
Historic sites
Gandan Monastery, Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar
Mongolia's most important Buddhist monastery, one of the few that survived communist purges in the 1930s, with hundreds of monks.