IN MONGOLIA
IKH GAZRIIN CHULUU – Их газрын чулуу
Embracing the vast beauty of Ikh Gazriin Chuluu, where ancient rocks whisper tales of time.
Ikh Gazriin Chuluu is the largest part of the granite area of Mongolia. Located in Govi-Ugtaal and Bayanjargalan soum of Dundgovi province, Ikh Gazriin Chuluu is a beautiful rock formation in the Gobi desert. There are over 40 caves in the area and they are easy to access and close to each other, making it ideal for hiking. According to local people, one of the caves named Olgii, used to be full of mysterious books and scriptures.
The highest point of Ikh Gazriin Chuluu is Yurlug mountain with 1706 meters height. You can find several minerals such as pure crystal, cloudy crystal, jade, chalcedony, flourite, bezoar and shale in the area. Around 30 types of medicinal herbs like roseroot, silverweed and locoweed grows here, meanwhile over 20 species including whiskered bat and common bat inhabits Ikh Gazriin Chuluu.
Ikh Gazriin Chuluu became a government-protected area in 2003 due to its unique landscape. It covers almost 600 square km and is located 80 km to the south-east of Mandalgovi, the center of Dundgovi province.
In my camera at the stallion fight. I thought I was lucky so rare moment
Open-air theatre at the “Ih gazriin chuluu” in Dundgovi Region, Mongolia.
Over 3000 folk musicians, singers, and dancers have performed in 2023.
Tsagaan Suvarga – Цагаан суварга
Tsagaan Suvarga is a stunning location where visitors can see the full moon and Milky Way together. This creates a magical experience, allowing people to connect with the wonders of the universe in a tranquil setting.
LOCATION: 420 km from Ulaanbaatar, 85 km from Ulziit town in Dundgobi province, and 30 km east of the Ulaanbaatar-Umnugobi main road.
Tsagaan Suvarga is a 30-60 meters high, 400-meter-long colorful limestone formation that was once the ocean bed. Visitors can discover marine fossils and clamshells here. The vivid colors of Tsagaan Suvarga are most striking during early morning and evening hours. The site derives its name from its shape resembling Buddhist stupas or pagodas.
Ulaan suvarga – Улаан суварга
Ulaan Suvarga is located not far from Tsagaan Suvarga.
Bayanzag – Баянзаг
Bayanzag flaming cliffs
Bayanzag red sand cliffs, today better known as “flaming cliffs” due to their colours ochre and red, are located about 100 km (62,14 miles) at the northwest of Dalanzadgad. Bayanzag means “rich in saxaul”. This thorny shrub measuring approximately two meters high proliferates in the surroundings and is a good source of food for camels.
This plain has many sedimentary sand cliffs where many dinosaurs’ fossils have been found. In 1922, the palaeontologist Roy Chapman Andrews was the first to discover dinosaurs’ bones and eggs. They belonged to a horned, herbivorous, two-meters long dinosaur that was not identified yet. After this discovery, this dinosaur was called protoceratops Andrews. The excavations lasted two years, during which many hundreds of bones were dug up. During this period, Andrews and his team discovered a dinosaur’s nest with an eggs’ clutch. This discovery drew the whole world’s attention.
Mongolia was hosting its first-ever Dinosaur Festival on July 29 and 30.
We were watching the first-ever Dinosaur Festival.
Out of 400 species of dinosaurs discovered so far, 80 came from southern Mongolia, where they lived in the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic era. For example, the velociraptor, which appeared in the Jurassic Park movies, oviraptor, and protoceratops were first found in the Mongolian part of the Gobi desert. One of the most famous dinosaur fossils, the Fighting Dinosaurs, which shows a fight between a velociraptor and a protoceratops, was found in 1971 by Polish and Mongolian paleontologists.
Yolyn am – Ёлын ам
Yolyn Am is a deep, narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains of southern Mongolia. The valley is named after Lammergeier, which is called Yol in Mongolian. The bearded vulture is an Old World vulture, so the name is often translated as Valley of the Vultures or Valley of the Eagles
A heart clouds with beautiful landscape in Yolyn am.
Khongoryn Els – Хонгорын элс
DEAR SAND
It is located in the area of Sevrei and Bayandalai sub-districts of Umogovi province, and it is a sand dune that stretches for about 180 kilometers behind the Sevrei and Zooleng mountain ranges. It stretches from northwest to southeast and has a total area of 965 square kilometers. The widest part of the sand is 27 kilometers in the northwestern part, and the narrowest is 800 meters in the central part. When you get to the top of the sand dunes, you can see hundreds of dunes. When looking at the entire vicinity of Hongor sand, it is very beautiful to see a rocky mountain in front, a sand dune in the middle where no vegetation can grow, and a green oasis with a river flowing on the north side. The floodwaters from the Zoeleng Mountains make a path through the sands of Hongor and soak into the soil, forming streams called Serun Bulag and Arganga Bulag at the northern edge of the sand, then re-emerge on the ground and flow more than 10 kilometers to the west along the edge of the sand, which is called the Hongor River.
Khongoryn Els also called Duut Mankhan is popularly known as the “Singing Sands”. It lies within the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park in Mongolia.
Duut Manhan is the highest part of Hongor sand. When you climb to the top of this sand dune, which looks majestic than the 9th floor of an apartment building, you can clearly hear the sounds of people and animals in the neighborhood and things blowing in the wind. It’s strange that even the cars on the ground look like tiny bugs when you look down from the top. Lying face up on the sand, you can hear the sound of airplanes taking off. When you wait to see where the plane will come from, you can’t see the plane’s cargo, and you know that the sound is the sound of the gentle wind blowing over the sand dunes. This sound is made when the sand warmed by the sun gently slides in the wind. That is why the locals call it “Duut Manhan”.
It was a hot and windy day.
After Hongor Sand, Kherman – Tsaw wanted to go there, but our small car couldn’t go there and we got stuck in the sand. Luckily, our kind-hearted Mongolians helped us out of the sand straight away.
Baga gazriin Chuluu – Бага гарын чулуу
Baga gazariin chuluu rocky formation
The astonishing granitic formations of Baga Gazariin Chuluu, ”stone of the little place”, are located in the northwest of the province of Dundgovi, in the heart of the steppe, 250 km (155,34 miles) towards south of Ulaanbaatar, in the sum of Delgertsogt. At a height of 1751 metres (1,09 mile), they form a granite canyon erected in the heart of the steppe. The erosion polished the rock faces of the cliffs. Some of the lateral entries of the canyon are not very accessible, but most of them permit to enter and to make wonderful hikes in this rocky maze. You may manage to see on the rock the inscriptions written by two venerated monks who lived there in the 19th century.
We can visit on the site the ruins of an old temple dating from the 17th century. We can see there a deep narrow hole. The stagnating rainwater could treat the ocular illnesses. A little ladle has been put on the rock for the people to wash their eyes with the sacred water.
In the middle of aspen trees, surrounded by high cliffs of granite stones, there is the ruin of temple. Also there were two pilgrims used to live and meditate here about 300 years ago. According to a legend, they built their home (ger) on a small spring so that they didn’t need to go out of their Ger for fetching water. Later, a high ranked and renowned monk Zava Damdin lived here for a short time to create his works in early 20th century.
This is the only place where your cell phone can have an antenna
it was amazing! We often traveled very difficult and very adventurous with 3000km. Yes, we are done.
Thank you for coming this far together. Hope you like the pictures and videos.
