.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg?width=800)
Gobi Desert
Desert in East Asia
A large region of cold desert and grassland in North China and southern Mongolia, the sixth-largest desert in the world.
Photo: Christopher Michel from San Francisco, USA, CC BY 2.0
MN · Curated travel guide
Mongolia: 10 places worth the journey
Gobi Desert, Burkhan Khaldun, Orkhon Valley and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
- Places
- 10
- World Heritage
- 2
- Language
- Mongolia
- Currency
- MNT
What to see in Mongolia
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Mongolia and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. 2 are on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
World Heritage
Burkhan Khaldun
Mountain in Khentii Province, Mongolia
A mountain of the Khentii range in north-eastern Mongolia's Khentii Province. The mountain or the area around it is believed to be where Genghis Khan was born and where his tomb lies.
Photo: Ganzorig Gavaa, CC BY-SA 2.0
World Heritage
Orkhon Valley
Valley in central Mongolia
A cultural landscape spreading along the Orkhon River's banks in Central Mongolia, some 320 km west of Ulaanbaatar, the capital. UNESCO put it on the World Heritage List as a record of nomadic herding traditions going back more than two millennia.
Photo: He-ba-mue, CC BY-SA 2.5
Orkhon inscriptions
Göktürk inscriptions dating to the 8th century
Bilingual texts in Old Turkic, written in the Old Turkic alphabet, and Middle Chinese, carved on two memorial steles set up by the Göktürks in the early 8th century in the Orkhon Valley, in today's Mongolia, to honour two Turkic princes, Kul Tigin and his brother Bilge Qaghan.
Photo: Philipp Roelli, CC BY-SA 3.0
Equestrian statue of Genghis Khan
Monument in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
A stainless steel statue of Genghis Khan on horseback, 40-metre (130 ft) tall, part of the Genghis Khan Statue Complex and the tallest equestrian statue on Earth. It stands at Tsonjin Boldog, about a mile from the Tuul River and 54 km (33.55 mi) east of Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital, where legend says he found a golden whip.
Photo: Zazaa Mongolia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Khüiten Peak
Tallest mountain in the Altai range
Known in China as Friendship Peak, a summit of the Altai Range crossed by the China–Mongolia border. At 4,356 metres (14,291 ft) it is the highest point of the Altais, of Mongolia and of western China's Altay Prefecture.
Photo: Original uploader was Kobsev at ru.wikipedia, CC BY 2.5
Otgontenger
Highest peak in the Khangai Mountains of Mongolia
The highest peak of Mongolia's Khangai Mountains, whose summit is calculated at 4,021 meters above mean sea level.
Photo: Andre Felbrich, CC BY-SA 3.0
Lake Khövsgöl
Largest freshwater lake in Mongolia
Also called the Khövsgöl Sea, a lake in Mongolia's Khövsgöl Province: the country's biggest freshwater lake by volume, and second by area, after Uvs Lake.
Photo: Damiano Luchetti, Public domain
Sükhbaatar Square
Central square in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar
The main square of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia's capital, named after Damdin Sükhbaatar, the Mongolian revolutionary hero, following his death in 1923, with a monumental statue of him on horseback in the middle.
Photo: Brücke-Osteuropa, Public domain
Burial place of Genghis Khan
Undetermined site and source of mystery
Where the Mongol leader was buried after he died in August 1227. His grave has been the subject of much research and speculation, but it has never been found.
Photo: Ganzorig Gavaa, CC BY-SA 2.0
About Mongolia
A landlocked East Asian country between China, to its south, and Russia, to its north. Covering 1,564,116 square kilometers, it is the 18th-largest country on Earth, the second-largest landlocked country after Kazakhstan, and the largest landlocked country without an inland sea on its border. With 3.5 million people, it is the most thinly populated sovereign state in the world, leaving Western Sahara aside.
Officially Mongolia. Known locally as Mongol Uls Монгол Улс.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
Questions travellers ask
What is worth seeing in Mongolia?
This guide lists 10: Gobi Desert, Burkhan Khaldun, Orkhon Valley and Orkhon inscriptions and others. Burkhan Khaldun and Orkhon Valley are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
How were these places chosen?
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Mongolia that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
Which places here are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
2 of the 10 in this guide: Burkhan Khaldun and Orkhon Valley. That is not the full count for Mongolia, only the listed sites that made this guide.
What language is spoken in Mongolia, and what currency?
Mongolia. The currency is MNT.
How do I get mobile data in Mongolia?
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $5.73 for 1GB for 7 days. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Which networks would my phone use in Mongolia?
Mobicom. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
One practical note: staying online
Maps, tickets and translation all want data, and roaming is the expensive way to get it. A Computatus eSIM eSIM connects to Mobicom once you land, and installs by QR code before you leave.
See 8 Computatus eSIM plans for Mongolia from $5.73
| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB for 7 days Cheapest | 1 GB | 7 days | $5.73 | Get it → |
| 1GB per day | 1 GB | 1 day | $5.78 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $16.47 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $16.49 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $18.06 | Get it → |
| 5GB for 30 days | 5 GB | 30 days | $27.30 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
Mobicom 4G
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.