A vast rain shadow formed by the blocking of clouds by the Himalayas, the Gobi dominates the southern half of Mongolia. Freezing in winter and blisteringly hot in summer, this is an inhospitable landscape of sun-scorched plains, huge dunes…

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The dramatic Orkhon Valley in central Mongolia, where the foothills of the Khangai Mountains peter into the steppes, served as the site of the Mongol capital before it moved to Peking in 1264. Dressed stone from the site was later used to c…

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Deep in the heart of the Khangai Mountains lies this exquisitely beautiful freshwater lake, formed millions of years ago when lava flows blocked the Suman River, a tributary of the Chuluut. The best views over Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur (literal…

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This reserve to the southwest of Ulaanbaatar is one of only three places in the entire Mongolian steppe where you can still see pure, wild horses. The breed, known as Przewalski’s horse, or takhi in the local language, has never been domest…

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The far north of the country, towards the Russian border, comprises a vast tract of wild mountains and taiga stretching to Lake Baikal in Siberia. Winter temperatures can be ferocious, -50°C or lower, but in summer, the grasslands and larch…

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Sandwiched between Siberia and China’s Xinjiang Province, the southwest of Mongolia, known as Bayan-Olgii, comprises a far-flung tract of mountains and empty grassland. This is about as wild and remote as Asia gets: the landscape is spectac…

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To the west of Khovsgol Nuur, the empty Darkhad Depression is the homeland of Mongolia’s last reindeer herders, the Tsaatan: 44 families still live in the traditional nomadic way around this pine-speckled plain, moving five or six times eac…

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Mongolia’s modern capital, Ulaanbaatar, started life in the 17th century as a peripatetic monastery encampment of shacks and yurts, which moved every few years to different sites around the confluence of the Tuul and Selbe Rivers. Fuelled b…

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