Photos of Ömnögovi Province, Mongolia

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Ömnögovi Province

Ömnögovi (= South Gobi) aimag is the southernmost province of Mongolia. It is Mongolia’s largest aimag, with 165,380 km²; it has only around 50,000 inhabitants. It is a real desert country; the average summer temperature is 38°C; in the winter, it can go down to -34°C, and precipitation is only 130 mm per year. But the province is rich in mineral deposits, including gold and copper; massive mines are digging it all out.

Dinosaur sculptures
 
Monument in park
 
Road to Yolyn Am
 
Walking to Yolyn Am
 
At Yolyn Am
 
Canyon at Yolyn Am
 
Canyon at Yolyn Am
 
At Dugany Am
 
Ger camp
 
Temple ruin
 
Stupa at temple ruin
 
Horses on grasslands
 
Tourist ger camp
 
Camel profile
 
Camels for ride
 
Camel portrait
 
The sand dunes
 
The sand dunes
 
Khongoryn Els dune
 
Camels waiting
 
Watering the goats
 
Selling rocks and drinks
 
Bulgan monastery
 
In Bulgan monastery
 
Village of Bulgan
 
Bayanzag “Flaming Cliffs”
 
“Flaming Cliffs”
 
Bayanzag view
 
Ovoo at Bayanzag
 
Small ger, Bayanzag
 
Selling melons
 
Horse fountain
 
Camels of the Gobi
 
Bactrian camel
 
Bus during break
 
Shop and tea house
 

The province’s capital is Dalanzadgad, a small town with a park running through its centre, displaying sculptures of dinosaurs on the gate posts: South Gobi is famous for the dinosaur fossil finds made here. There is a market and a new area with a stadium and a fountain with large horse sculptures.

But the most outstanding views have to be reached by jeep; there is the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan (Three Beauties) National Park with Yolyn Am (Vulture’s Mouth), a narrow canyon where ice and snow remain frozen until the end of July. Khongoryn Els, about 160 kilometres west of Dalanzadgad, has the most spectacular sand dunes in Mongolia: up to 300 metres high, 12 kilometres wide, and about 100 kilometres long; they are known as Duut Mankhan - “Singing Dunes”, from the sound when the sand is moved by the wind or collapses in small avalanches. There is a ger camp here, and camels await tourists. About 95 kilometres north-west of Dalanzadgad is the bleak village of Bulgan, and nearby is the desert landscape of rock, sand and scrub at Bayanzag (meaning “rich in saxaul shrubs”), also known as the “Flaming Cliffs”. It is renowned as a rich source of dinosaur bones and eggs, first excavated in 1922 and where Protoceratops fossils and a cluster of eggs were found.