Destination Mongolia

When we think of Mongolia today, we mostly mean the country that’s the People’s Republic of Mongolia.  But these terms are confusing when we remember that Mongolia was, at one time, the largest Empire on earth… with dominions and vassal states stretching from the Danube in Europe to Japan and Java.  Mongolian power and influence stretched far beyond the boundaries of the country we identify on today’s maps.  Even so, the Mongolia of today remains an immense territory, more than five times the size of contemporary Germany…  yet with a national population barely larger than that of Dusseldorf,  making it one of the most sparsely-populated countries on earth.  These statistics are less surprising when we consider that much of the territory of Mongolia has an extreme climate that many peoples would find hard to tolerate – summer high temperatures into the mid-40s Celsius, but winter lows dropping to –45C and below.  Mongolia is also home to a huge zone which is famous for its inhospitable climate – the Gobi Desert, which lies entirely within Mongolia’s borders. Read more>