No thread yet for this vast yet sparse country, so let's open one! 🇲🇳

I am just coming extremely late (as usual) to express also here my appreciation to @Michael Ayers for his recent reviews of Orkhon Valley and Burkhan Khaldun, which I enjoyed very much. I wish you the best for the continuation of your trips!

Maybe I might think of adding one about Orkhon. Since I am at that, a question about boundaries: I cannot decide from the very coarse map on UNESCO's site if the "Khul-Tegin museum", officially Хөшөө Цайдам мүзэй (khöshöö Tsaidam müzei, which I guess means "stelae's valley/salty marsh museum") north of Kharkhorin, of which I find few sites (touristic info [Mongolian], Wikipedia) is still in the core zone (from a mere cultural point of view, I think there would be no doubts). It is here on the map: too up north? But it's still in the district of Khashaat.

And with this, I imagine this thread in the future frequented proportionately to how many travellers traverse those remote steppes and valleys :-)

Hi Astraftis,

Thanks for your kind words about my reviews, I am happy that you found them to be helpful!

Looking at the "coarse" unesco map you linked, I would say, yes, the place you are interested in is definitely in the core zone. It is the area outlined in green at the northeast edge of the zone. The outlines make the first word of the text label hard to read, but the second word is "хошоо", or "khoshoo", which is part of the Mongolian name for the Orkhon Inscriptions location. I hope that helps.

Mongolia is a beautiful country!

Hey, good find! Giving it a better look, that area is labeled as Цайдмын хөшөө Tsaidmiin khöshöö 'the marsh's monument/stele', or something similar. So it is nearly the exact thing as хөшөө цайдам, only with цайдам in the genitive. OK. I was confused by the scale of the map... So the names of the towns do not actually indicate the "towns", but the districts, and the smaller, right river is the "old Orkhon" (the tag хөгшин Орхон is barely visible). Now, I guess that Khar Balgas is the bigger green polygon in the West!

PS: is it strange for a map to be "coarse"? :-)

Not for UNESCO, all of their maps seem that way to me! ;-)

Eastern Mongolian Steppes (Mongolia)

"TOWARDS THE WORLD HERITAGE NOMINATION OF
THE EASTERN MONGOLIAN STEPPES"

"update the Eastern Mongolian Steppes in the Tentative List according to the new
geographical scope and new finding latest in January 2023"

The updated nomination will greatly expand from the 2014 nomination.

"The five protected areas originally proposed for nomination under the Tentative List provide a good basis, but four additional elements should be added. Based on initial assessments, the preliminary selected serial property would be in excess of 2.8 million hectares in size." - Cross-country Partnership with Germany

CALL FOR ACTION TO PROTECT THE LAST INTACT STEPPE ECOSYSTEM ON EARTH IN EASTERN MONGOLIA

We are working together to register Eastern Mongolia as a world heritage site [Mongolian News Article]

No final nomination date is set, but it would seem 2025 or 2026 might be a reasonable estimate.

Deer Stone Monuments (and Orkhan valley) will be 2 that I will visit prior to my trip to China in late November.

I will visit both locations of Jargalantyn Am (easy to pinpoint some interesting places), but also this one: Bronze Age complex Site with Deer Stones at Khoid Tamir (KT)
this is a 9200 hectare location; which i assume is not full with bronze age stuff every 50 meters. does any one know the exact locations of places of interest within the 9200 hectare?

I have 3 days only.
day 1 drive to Tsetserleg and visit Khar Balgas Ordu Baliq on the way
day 2 go to all the deer stones overnight again in Tsetserleg
day 3 go to karakorum complexes and back to UB

christravelblog
What dates will you be travelling? Open to have accompany in Mongolia?

Well, my best wishes to you, christravelblog! Let us know if it works out! Late November is already deep winter in Mongolia and I think travelling on land might not be so expedite and days are short, especially if you want to reach those deer stone sites, which are in the middle of nowhere (well, like everything else). You have a very tight schedule, e.g. UB to Tsetserleg can easily be 6+ hours, and that's on paved roads. You will probably manage to do that, even if personally I would find it extremely stressful.

I am sorry do not have any idea where the exact points of interest are in Khoid Tamir and information seems hard to obtain. I fear we will have to wait for yet another very coarse map... but I think that people in Tsetserleg or directly in Ikh Tamir will know for sure.

The official map shows them on page 4

Oh, now this is a nice set of maps!

Zos
Sorry to replpy now. I arrive to Mongolia 26th November.
the planned trip is 27th to 29th. and on 30th i fly to Beijing.
the route and dates are fixed.


True, but these deerstone sites, especially one location, i just near the road (allthough dirt road) from tetserleg. this is allright to drive. the ones in the valley......

elsslots
stuying this maps now for the valley. I see that some rockart is included too. lets see how the weather is :-)

Based on your posted itinerary, it seems you are going to be focused more South, but I think the Deer Stones just outside Murun seem the best component to visit, both representative and accessible. Ulaanbaatar to Murun takes 11 hours and the road is paved. I will be interested to read how your itinerary goes, as I have been considering a 1-2 week trip to Mongolia for a while now.

Google Maps Uushigiin Uver Deer Stones

I agree :-) but if you are in the Orkhon valley already, one can easy visit Tsetserleg (and there is a good hotel, which is nice in winter). From there the 2 components can be done as a day trip. I think that's also the only reasonable way to kind of visit those 2 components?

I will for sure comment back.

Well, I need to mention that the coach from Ulaanbaatar takes a long time including a lunch break but otherwise it speeds along and the roads are very good, then you are in Orkhon Valley in ~8h. That is to say I took it LATE summer and it was already cold then. Mongolia starts to snow heavily in November already. The good road from the capital is one thing, perhaps it is plowed, but taking small roads through the valley is risky. Ensure you have a good rental car and driver (officially you need an IDP as a foreign driver but I suppose the rental companies ignore that). Looking forward to hear how endeavor turns out.

Zoe
Yeah, will have a private 4x4 car from UB. They said should be quite clear skies lol. we will see where i get!
i have a stopover in UB for business, so it's not that i go just to try this :-)