Everything that made the country is in one valley system a few hours from the capital — the imperial capital, the waterfall, the last wild horses, and a hot spring to finish in.
Power in Mongolia sat in the Orkhon valley for two thousand years before it sat anywhere else — Turkic, then Uighur, then Mongol. That is why UNESCO listed the whole cultural landscape rather than any single ruin, and why Chinggis Khaan put his capital here in 1220 rather than somewhere more defensible.
It is also the most forgiving part of the country to travel in. The distances between the sights are short by Mongolian standards, the roads are the best outside the city, and you can be at a ger camp in the steppe three hours after breakfast in Ulaanbaatar. Most people who come for a week spend it here without regretting the other regions they missed.
A volcanic eruption and an earthquake met in the same place and left a valley of black rock and green pasture. The Ulaantsutgalan waterfall drops twenty-two metres over the basalt, and the river runs north for more than a thousand kilometres to join the Selenge.
Founded in 1220 and built into the imperial capital by Ogedei in the 1230s — for as long as it stood, one of the most important cities on the Silk Road. Erdene Zuu, inside its wall of stupas, is the oldest surviving monastery in the country.
Strictly protected since 1965 and reachable on tarmac. Brown bears, grey wolves, foxes and over two hundred bird species, the Tuul river running through it, Turtle Rock at twenty-four metres, and the Ariyapala meditation centre with its hundred and eight prayer wheels.
The reintroduction that worked. Takhi — the only horse never domesticated — were extinct in the wild and now number over three hundred and sixty in this park alone. They come down to water in the early evening.
Eighty-six degrees at the source and ten litres a second, carrying calcium, sodium and sulphur into open-air pools at the camp. People come for arthritic joints and stay for the sky.
Forty-six thousand hectares where three provinces meet, and the one place you can stand with sand on one side and forested mountain on the other. Two monasteries sit inside the reserve.
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May to September is green and easy. September and early October turn the valley gold and empty the camps. Winter trips run from November to February on private dates — cold, bright, and the only time you will have Kharakhorum to yourself.
Tell us your dates and how long you have. We'll shape a route around them, or point you at the group departure that fits.
