Geography and climate

Mongolian landscape

The southern portion of Mongolia is taken up by the Gobi Desert, while the northern and western portions are mountainous.
Bactrian camels by sand dunes in Gobi Desert.

At 1,564,116 km² (603,909 sq mi), Mongolia is the world's 19th-largest country (after Iran). It is significantly larger than the next-largest country, Peru. It mostly lies between latitudes 41° and 52°N (a small area is north of 52°), and longitudes 87° and 120°E.

The geography of Mongolia is varied, with the Gobi Desert to the south and with cold and mountainous regions to the north and west. Much of Mongolia consists of steppes. The highest point in Mongolia is the Khüiten Peak in the Tavan bogd massif in the far west at 4,374 m (14,350 ft). The basin of the Uvs Lake, shared with Tuva Republic in Russia, is a natural World Heritage Site. Most of the country is hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter, with January averages dropping as low as -30 °C (-2 °F).

The country is also subject to occasional harsh climatic conditions known as zud. Ulan Bator has the lowest average temperature of any national capital in the world. Mongolia is high, cold, and windy. It has an extreme continental climate with long, cold winters and short summers, during which most of its annual precipitation falls. The country averages 257 cloudless days a year, and it is usually at the center of a region of high atmospheric pressure. Precipitation is highest in the north (average of 200 to 350 millimeters (7.9 to 13.8 in) per year) and lowest in the south, which receives 100 to 200 millimeters (3.9 to 7.9 in) annually. The extreme south is the Gobi, some regions of which receive no precipitation at all in most years.

The name "Gobi" is a Mongol term for a desert steppe, which usually refers to a category of arid rangeland with insufficient vegetation to support marmots but with enough to support camels. Mongols distinguish Gobi from desert proper, although the distinction is not always apparent to outsiders unfamiliar with the Mongolian landscape. Gobi rangelands are fragile and are easily destroyed by overgrazing, which results in expansion of the true desert, a stony waste where not even Bactrian camels can survive.

Mongolia Timeline

A chronology of key events:

1206-63	Following unification of the Mongol tribes, Genghis Khan launches a campaign of conquest. His sons and grandsons create the world's biggest land empire.
1267-1368	Weakened by disunity, the empire implodes. Ming troops oust the Mongols from Dadu (Beijing).
1380	The Golden Horde is defeated by the Russian Prince Dmitriy Donskoy. Ming troops destroy the Mongol capital Karakorum.
Manchu rule
1636	The Manchu (Qing) empire conquers the southern Mongols, creating Inner Mongolia.
1691	The Qing empire offers protection to the northern Mongols, creating Outer Mongolia.
1727	The Treaty of Kyakhta fixes the western border between the Russian and Manchu empires, confirming Qing dominion over Mongolia and Tuva.
First Soviet satellite state
1911	The Qing dynasty falls and Outer Mongolia declares its independence. Russia and the Republic of China recognise its autonomy.
1919	The Chinese army occupies Outer Mongolia.
1920	Mongolian revolutionaries found the Mongolian People's Party and open contact with Bolsheviks in Siberia.
1921	With Red Army support, Mongolian revolutionaries drive out Chinese and Tsarist forces and install the Mongolian "people's government".
1924	The People's Party chooses Lenin's "road to socialism bypassing capitalism" and renames itself the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP). The Mongolian People's Republic is proclaimed.
Purges
1928-32	"Rightists" who want private enterprise are ousted. "Leftists" who want communes are ousted. A "counter-revolutionary uprising" against the confiscation of monastery property is suppressed.
1937	Mongolian Prime Minister Genden is arrested in the USSR and shot for spying for Japan. The Minister of War Marshal Demid is poisoned aboard a Trans-Siberian train. Monasteries are destroyed and lamas murdered.
1939	Mongolian and Soviet troops commanded by General Zhukov defeat an invasion by Japanese and Manchukuo forces in the Battle of Halhyn Gol (Nomonhan).
1939	"Mongolia's Stalin", the Minister of Internal Affairs and new Minister of War Choybalsan, is appointed prime minister. Ex-Prime Minister Amar is tried in the USSR and shot for spying for Japan.
International recognition
1945-46	Yalta conference agrees to preserve the status quo (i.e. Soviet control) in Mongolia. Mongolians vote for independence in a UN plebiscite. Mongolia is recognised by the Republic of China.
1949-55	Relations established with the People's Republic of China. Railway built across Mongolia linking Russia and China.
1952	Choybalsan dies, and is replaced as prime minister by Tsedenbal, the MPRP general secretary since 1940.
1961-63	UN Security Council approves Mongolia's UN membership. Diplomatic relations established with the UK.
Soviet buffer against China
1966	Soviet Communist Party General-Secretary Brezhnev signs a friendship treaty in Ulan Bator allowing secret stationing of Soviet troops in Mongolia.
1973-81	Mongolia accuses China of planning annexation, protests against Chinese leaders call for withdrawal of Soviet troops, accuses China of "aggressive intentions" and expels some Chinese residents.
1984	"Mongolia's Brezhnev", party General-Secretary Tsedenbal, head of state since 1974, is forced out of office by the MPRP Politburo.
1986	Gorbachev's Vladivostok speech opens the way to detente with China and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Mongolia.
Democracy
1990	Street demonstrations force resignation of the MPRP Politburo. Political parties are legalised. Elections to the Great Hural (parliament) are won by the MPRP, but 19 of the 50 seats in a new standing legislature go to non-communists.
1992	Mongolia's new constitution gives first place to human rights and freedoms. In the first democratic elections the MPRP wins 71 of the 76 seats in the new single-chamber Great Hural.
1993	The first direct presidential elections are won by Ochirbat, nominated by the National and Social Democrats.
1996	The National and Social Democrats win 50 seats in the Great Hural elections, but the MPRP can deny a quorum, hindering passage of legislation.
1997	MPRP candidate Bagabandi wins presidential election.
2000	After the democrats form three new governments in two years the MPRP wins 72 seats in the Great Hural elections. The National and Social Democrats and three other parties form a new Democratic Party.
2001 February	UN launches appeal for $8.7m (£6m) to support herders suffering in worst winter conditions in more than 50 years.
2001 May	President Bagabandi re-elected.
2001 October	IMF approves nearly $40 million in low-interest loans over next three years to help tackle poverty and boost economic growth.
2002 November	Dalai Lama visits. China denounces trip and warns Mongolian leaders not to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader.
2003 July	It is announced that 200 soldiers will be sent to Iraq to contribute to peacekeeping.
2004 January	Russia writes off all but $300 million of Mongolia's debts.
2004 June-August	Parliamentary elections, in which the opposition performs strongly, result in political deadlock over contested results. Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj is eventually appointed as prime minister following power-sharing deal.