Country of Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in northern continental Asia bordering with the Russian Federation on the north and the People’s Republic of China on the east. It has a land area of 1.6 million square kilometers, making it the fifth largest country in Asia and the seventeenth in the world.
Geographic Situation of Mongolia, covering an area of 1,564,100 square kilometers, lies in the heart of the continent Asia. It stretches about 2,400 km from west to east and about 1,260 km from north to south and bounded on the north by Russia and on the southeast and west by China. Mongolia is mountainous country with an average altitude of 1,580 meters above the sea level. The lowest point Khokh-nuur in the east is 552 meters above sea level and the highest point is the mountain Nairamdal in the Mongolian Altai (in the west) which stands at 4,374 meters. The geography of the country is characterized by great diversity.
From north to south it can be divided into 4 areas, mountain-forest steppe, mountain steppe, semi-desert and the desert. In the west- north the mountain ranges and ridges are overgrown with wild forests, big lakes and tempestuous rivers. The vast grasslands of the Asian steppe stretch across the eastern part of the country. The Gobi Desert lies in the south occupying somewhat less than one-third of the Gobi Region, the rest being semi-desert grassland.
The state of Mongolia was established over 800 years ago by the great Mongolian leader Genghis Khan. Mongolia was a communist state from 1921 until 1990 and then established a democratic country in 1992. Mongolia is one of the largest, but least densely populated countries on earth with a total area of 1,564,000 sq. km but a population of only 2.7 million. A large percentage of the population is made up of nomadic herders who live in Mongolia’s vast countryside. Over a third of the population lives in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Traditional ways of living including nomadic herding lifestyle and living in gers are still prevalent today in many parts of Mongolia.
