Arrival on Ulaanbaatar. Transfer to the hotel. Lunch in a Mongolian restaurant  to discover local dishes. In the evening planned a traditional show.

Ulaanbaatar (in Mongolian: "Red Hero") is the capital of Mongolia. It is at the same time the political, economic, industrial, scientific and cultural center. Administratively, it has the status, unique in the country, of  municipality, comparable to that of province.

The city, which stretches from east to west at the bottom of the valley of the Tula River, over twenty kilometers, brings together more than a million inhabitants, more than a third of the country's population.

The city changed its name several times in its history; at its creation in 1639, örgöö  which gives the famous translation  Urga, in 1651 Nomyn khüree , in 1706  Ikh khüree , in 1912 Niislel khüree  and finally in 1924, the current name, Ulaanbaatar.

Ulaanbaatar is located 522 km  south-southeast of Irkutsk, Russia,1,170  km northwest of  Beijing,1,557  km  east-northeast of Ürümqi, China and 4,635  km  east-southeast of  Moscow. The city is built along the Tula River, a stream belonging to the Selenge sub-basin. To the southeast of the city is the  Choybalsan Uul,a small regional massif culminating at 2,261 m and belonging to the Khentii Mountains. The latter mountainous set, more important, limits the Tula Valley to the north and continues to Russia.

Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital of the world, it benefits a continental climate froid and  dry.  Winter is cold and long while summer is short and cool. Almost all precipitation occurs in summer

Ulaanbaatar-Mini Gobi-Karakorum-Erdenezuu 360km

Departure for Karakorum en route we will pass through  a place called Mini Gobi is an 80 km long sand dune that extends west of Khogno Khan mountain, starting on the west side of Batkhaan mountain, crossing the territory of Erdenesant village of the Tuv region, Burd village of Uvurkhangai region and Rashaant village of Bulgan region. The main road divides this sand dune, the southern part is called Mongolian sand and the northern part is called Khogno tarna sand. Under the influence of the Tarna River, the sand is wet and shrubs like willow, elm grow there. The landscape is very varied here.

Karakoram

The capital of the Mongol Empire

In the early thirteenth century, Genghis Khan established Mongol rule over a territory that stretched from the Pacific to the  Caspian Sea, founding an empire that included the steppes of Mongolia, Korea, North China,  and part of Central Asia. This empire is initially devoid of a capital because the Mongols are nomads.

Around 1220, Genghis Khan  established his base camp, leaving women and central administration during his military campaigns, on the site of Karakorum (name meaning "black rock"), located at the foot of the Khangai Mountains on the left bank of the Orkhon atributary of the Selenge. Karakorum is a significant site, some 25 km from the ancient Uyghur capital Qara Balgassun (VIIIth  century).

Genghis Khan died in 1227 and was succeeded by his son Ögödei,  who around 1235 began work on transforming the Karakorum into a capital city. A wall was built, because it was the symbol of any city. Later, Marco Polo  mentions a simple earthen embankment and Guillaume de Rubrouck a brick wall. Four doors open on the four cardinal points. Two huge granite statues depicting turtles, with Sinisant-style inscriptions, adorn the East Gate that leads to China.

Karakorum is open to all religions and peoples of the Empire. Its inhabitants are almost all foreigners, because the Mongols refuse to settle down. Two large districts dominate: that of the Chinese and that of the Saracens, mainly craftsmen and artists. The Mongolian capital shows a high quality of life. Archaeologists have spotted hot air heating systems, irrigation canals and water supply. Agriculture appears near the city to feed the inhabitants, but Karakorum depends on agricultural imports from China.

The imperial palace, called Qarchi ("castle") by the Mongols and Wan-an kung ("Palace of the Thousand Tranquility") by the Chinese, rises in the center of a courtyard surrounded by several enclosures, the largest measuring 200 meters by 225. A mound 28 meters high hosts the imperial yurt. Guillaume de Rubrouck reports that the palace itself adopted a basilical plan with five naves, separated by large wooden pillars. The great khan sits at the bedside, sitting like a god above the subjects on a podium with two access stairs. But the Mongolian palace remains on the whole very simple. It reflects the hesitant first steps of a people who still know nothing about architecture and urban planning.

In 1256 Möngke,the fourth great khan, built a huge five-storey stupa, one hundred meters high, which revealed the favors that the Mongols granted to Buddhism.

Visit to the Monastery of Erdenezuu

Once we have arrived on site we will visit the most beautiful and oldest Buddhist monastery Erdenezuu built between 1585 and 1586. The stones from the ruins of Karakorum  were used in the construction. It is surrounded by a wall presenting 108  stupas,108 is a sacred number in Buddhism, and the number of pearls in a Buddhist rosary (mala). The monastery was damaged by war in the 1680s, but was rebuilt in the eighteenth  century and by 1872 it included 62 complete temples inside.

For centuries, Erdene Zuu was the most important religious shrine in Mongolia. In 1939 communist leader Horloogiyn Choybalsan destroyed the monastery, as part of a purge that resulted in the disappearance of hundreds of monasteries in Mongolia and the death of more than ten thousand monks. Three small temples and the outer wall with the stupas remained; the temples became museums in 1947. It is said that this part of the monastery was spared from destruction because of pressure from Joseph Stalin. One researcher claims that it was US President Franklin Roosevelt who asked Stalin to spare the monastery in 1944.

Erdene Zuu could have existed as a museum only; the only functioning monastery in Mongolia was Gandantegchinlin Monastery in the capital, Ulaanbaatar. However, after the fall of communism in Mongolia in 1990, the monastery was handed over to the lamas and Erdene Zuu became a place of worship again. The site was restored at the end of the century and has partially regained its religious aspect. Today Erdene Zuu remains an active Buddhist monastery as well as a museum that is open to tourists.

After the site visit installation in a yurt camp. Dinner at the yurt camps.

Karakorum-Orkhon Valley  130km

Before leaving Karakorum we will visit the Archaeological Museum, a nice little museum very interesting.

The exhibits include dozens of objects dating from the thirteenth  and fourteenth  centuries discovered in the immediate vicinity, as well as others,unearthed in other parts of the aimag, including prehistoric stone tools. You will also see pottery, bronzes, coins, religious statues and stone inscriptions. A half-dug up ceramic kiln is also on display in the museum floor. Perhaps the most interesting is the scale model of Karakorum, which represents the city as described in the 1250s by the missionary William of Rubrouck.

Installation in a yurt camp.

We stay on site in the valley to do an equestrian hike or a hike. 10 km

Visit of the Ulaan-Tsutgalan Falls

16 meters high and formed 20,000 years ago following numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, the Orkhon Falls flow on a black stone transforming any ray of sunshine into a rainbow... A real colorful show not to be missed! Successive irruptions have covered the Orkhon valley with black volcanic rocks, which emerge in the middle of a green steppe. The falls themselves form a very pleasant site. The Orkhon River digs at this point a green gorge about twenty meters deep, and large övöo are erected at the top of the cliffs and at the foot of the falls, as if to better remind us how important these falls are in Mongolian culture. Due to drought, falls are often limited to a tiny flow, but when going down the river, smaller falls are found a little further away. And if you visit them on a rainy day, you will see them with all their power. In both cases, the surroundings are superb.

Yurt  Camps

Direction the hot spring of Tsenkher  on the way we visit the monastery of  Tuvkhun.  Tuvkhun Monastery, in Mongolian Tuvkhun Khiid (meditation monastery), was built in 1654 by Zanabazar one of the greatest representative of Buddhism in Mongolia who was also an artist and great sculptor. A path through the forest will take us to tuvkhun Monastery which is at the top of a mountain covered with conifères at 2300 meters. This monastery was built by Zanabazar, son of a noble family and direct descendant of Genghis Khan. He was the 1st Jebtsundamba Khutuktu of Mongolia in 1653. This Mongolian equivalent of the Dalai Lama was the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism from the school of "Yellow Hats".

We will eat our picnic at the very top of the rocky promontory from where we have a splendid 360 degree view of the Khangai mountain range and the national park. We descend by the other side of the mountain and walk along the beautiful valley full of horses.

The hot springs of tsenkher

The region of Arkhangai is rich in ancient volcanoes, 25 km southeast of Tsetserleg (capital of Arkhangai), there are hot springs among which the hot spring of Tsehkher at 1860 meters above sea level, at 85 ° C is very famous for its healing effects. The site is very nice, it is located in a beautiful wooded valley. Composition: sodium carbonate, hydrocarbonate, sulfate, fluorine and hydrogen sulfide.

Overnight at the Hot Spring Camps

Tsenkher Hot Spring-Tsetserleg -Khorgo Terkhiin Tsagaan Natural Park 210km

Direction the lake of Terkhiin  tsagaan

Terkhiin Tsagaan Lake, "white lake of the Terkh River", is located at an altitude of  2060 meters. It is the jewel of the Arkhangai and one of the most beautiful lakes in the country. It is the result of the volcanic eruption of Mount Khorgo. Moreover, it is surrounded by craters of other extinct volcanoes. It is 16 km long and 4 to 10 km wide. Its area is 61 km², its average depth is 20 meters. There are many  pike and many other species of fish. It remains frozen for much of the year. This area is still wild, you may encounter  axis deer, swamp deer, wildboar, ducks or large cormorants.  

In the Natural Park of Khorgo – Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, you can also observe and  climb Khorgo,an extinct volcano rising to 2240 meters above sea level east of Lake Terkhiin Tsagaan. The easy hike of about 16 kilometers will take you to the top of this extinct basalt-covered volcano, which was active 8000 years ago. Its crater is  200 meters in diameter and 70 to 80 meters deep, and is surrounded by small groves of trees. It has been protected since 1965.

Overnight at the camps

Check Into Thenkhleg Hotel this day we have free time to wander around the northern capital and get some well-needed rest before our horseback riding tour 

Lake Khuvsgul is located northwest of Mongolia near the Russian border, at the foot of the eastern Sayan Mountains. It is 1,645 meters (5,397 feet) above sea level, 136 kilometers (85 miles) long, and 262 meters (860 feet) deep. It is the second-most voluminous freshwater lake in Asia and holds almost 70% of Mongolia's fresh water and 0.4% of all the fresh water in the world. 

The Uran Togoo - Tulga Uul Natural Monument  is a national protected area in the Bulgan Province of Mongolia. It is located about 60 km directly west of Bulgan city around the extinct volcanoes Uran Togoo, Tulga, Togoo, and Jalavch Uul. Hiking To inactive volcano Urantogoo and camping.

All four mountain names allude to their volcanic past with designations borrowed from around the fireplace. The Uran Togoo and Togoo mountains are named for their bowl shape, the Tulga mountain for its three mounds reminding of the traditional iron tripod kettle support. Jalavch is a term for a small pot.[2] after the small hike, we will visit The pass of Tuluu where we can test famous Mongolian Kumis ( fermented mare milk ) then we will drive to Bulgan province to check into  our hotel