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Mongolia conjures up the romance and the magic of grassy steppes, arid deserts, high mountains and fierce warriors - an instant flashback to the days when Genghis Khan and his ravaging hordes swept down the steppes of West and Central Asia. When mighty empires crumbled to dust overwhelmed by the might of the Mongols. When Kublai Khan conquered China and laid the foundations of an empire that stretched from Europe to Asia. When Marco Polo traveled the famed Silk Route, the first European to reach the court of the mighty Khan.

Marauding tribes, barbaric riders and the awesome juggernaut of the Mongol hordes is an idea long lost - modern day Mongolia is a country in a state of flux, making the often slow and always painful transition to an open market economy and a democratic government.

While Mongolia is not quite the savage and godforsaken place of imagination, it is still amongst the last of the untamed territories of the world. The desolate and hostile expanse of the Gobi Desert, the unrelenting peaks of Altai - Tavan Bogd, the frozen 'Blue Pearl' Lake Khovsgol, the bleak volcanoes of Uran Uul and Togoo Uul and the magnificent valleys of Terelj and Yolyn Am, the 'Flaming Cliffs' and fossil park of Bayanzag, salt and freshwater lakes, springs and glaciers galore - all await the visitor. Mongolia is an unusual, harsh land - but it’s also amazingly beautiful in its arid splendour. Don’t expect the luxuries and pampering of more popular tourist destinations, instead prepare for the experience of a lifetime in an almost extra terrestrial terrain. So pull out the woollens, get fit and set out on for a once in a while adventure.

Take Heed! The Mongolian Death Worm, found in the Southern Gobi Desert of Mongolia mainly in June and July, can be very dangerous. It is believed that even coming in contact with it can cause immediate death. The worm can kill at a distance either by spraying an acid like substance or by using a super electrical charge.

Historically Speaking

Although archaeological digs have revealed human habitation in Mongolia going back to 5000 years, the term 'Mongol’ came to be used in reference to the nomadic people of this barren land only after the 9th century. At this time the Uighurs dominated most of Mongolia, founding several cities and in a manner of speaking, making the region one composite whole. By the 9th century, the Uighurs lost ground to the Kirghiz, thereby putting paid to any Mongol aspirations. The country’s fortunes remained at low ebb until the 12th century, when the most famous 'barbarian' amongst all barbarians, the mighty Genghis Khan or Chinggis Khan seized power. Mongolia united under the leadership of the great Khan, setting out on the road to empire expansion and consolidation of the entire region.

The Mongol Empire reached its zenith during the reign of Genghis’ grandson, Kublai Khan. Under Kublai Khan, the Mongols had subjugated most of Eurasia, conquered China, established the Yuan kingdom and expanded the empire all the way from Hungary to Korea and Vietnam - making for a very widespread empire, amongst the largest in history.

The Mongols were finally evicted from China in the mid 1300s, when the Ming dynasty came to power. They returned to their own country and were at once embroiled in terrible feuds that were to last till the 1600s - when the Manchus of China invited to help one Mongol clan, took advantage of the situation and grabbed power in Mongolia. The country now became a part of the Chinese Empire and remained a vassal state for the next three centuries. Any and every regional aspirations were ruthlessly crushed during the 1800s, till the Mongols were pushed into an all out rebellion in 1911. That won one concession from the Chinese, a theocratic government was allowed to govern Mongolia as an autonomous part of China.

For Mongolia, the early years of the 20th century were a time of turmoil, with both the regional powers of China and Russia squabbling for control of it. By 1921, with the help of the newly formed USSR, Mongolia won its freedom from China and with a Communist Government in situ, became the second communist country in history.

The seventy years following independence were largely marked by the eradication of all that was 'anti-communist’ by the Communist regime; a religious purge ensured the execution of thousands of monks and the complete obliteration of any religious institutions. The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s found communism in Mongolia faltering, weakening and eventually overthrown. Modern Mongolia is a democracy, trying hard to catch up with the rest of Asia in terms of development, progress and modernization.

Habitat

Mongolia is one of the largest land-locked countries in the world. Its boundaries touch Russia and China, and its topography ranges from mountains in the north to open desert and steppes in the south. Mongolia can be divided into six zones - desert, mountain, mountain taiga, mountain forest steppe, arid steppe and taiga. The mountain belt of the Mongol Altai, Khangai and Khentii mountains in the northern part of the country are almost totally alpine, with very little vegetation. Covered by snow throughout the year, the area has many glaciers. Further south is the mountain forest steppe belt; the mountain ranges and the southerly slopes are covered by rough grass and scrub while the northern slopes are heavily forested - a strange combination indeed. Mongolia has high surface and ground water resources with plenty of water bodies (lakes and rivers), glaciers, mineral springs and springs. The northern region has most of Mongolia’s rivers and lakes - over 3000 of each. The longest river is the Orkhon at 1124 km.

Almost 20% of the country is steppe - vast flat grass-covered plains that include the Depression of Great Lakes and the Gobi Desert, a treeless, barren cold desert with some of the harshest climatic conditions on the planet. But the Gobi Desert also has some of the country’s most valuable mineral deposits. Deforestation, overgrazing, unplanned urbanization and a lack of water resources are some of the main environmental problems facing Mongolia.

Flora and Fauna: A large part of Mongolia has a rugged terrain and much of the country is still virgin territory, where native flora and fauna still survive. The government is constantly striving to preserve Mongolia’s wildlife, particularly in the last decades. Mongolia has 48 protected areas, which cover about 13.1% of the total land area.

Mongolia’s flora varies considerably from north to south and to a lesser extent from east to west. Forests of larch, birch and pine cover about 8.1% of the land in the north, while scrub and grasslands make up about 52% of the territory. The rest is basically desert vegetation - very sparse and often consisting of hardy species and lower plants like lichens, fungi and mosses.

Mongolia has around 133 species of mammals of which some are very rare and endangered, such as Przewalski’s horse, the white-tailed gazelle, the Siberian ibex, the Saiga antelope, the Eurasian otter, the lynx and the musk deer. Other endemic animal species include the black grouse, manul, pheasants, hamster, the vole, the Mongolian jerboa, the Gobi jerboa and the Mongolian gerbil.