South Mongolia

B e prepared to have some illusions shattered. The notion of Gobi Desert as a wasteland of uninhabited sand dunes seems to have been developed solely in the minds of a few folklorists. While it is a fairly bleak part of the world, the Gobi is also enormously diverse, with various sprinklings of ice filled canyons, rock formations from the ages before, and verdant oases. By comparison, sand dunes appear in short supply, they cover just 3% of the Gobi. Somehow, the Mongols have made a home of it, with scattered nomad camps still dotting the plains, ramshackle villages and the occasional ruined monastery to indicate long disappeared settlements. A close look on the ground reveals a more ancient past as the Gobi supports a wealth of fossils. Mongolian Gobi is selected as one of the best tourism destinations by Adventure magazine of National Geographic Society.