50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan | With Images

Mongolia is the least populated country in the world . Its past, basically nomadic, the difficult climate and its geography have contributed to this fact. However, its customs and traditions and the opening to the world that it is experiencing in the last decades make it a country that begins to become a tourist destination due to its peculiarities. Join us to discover 50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan.

This great country, located between Russia and China, is one of the highest in the world and is located 700 km. of the nearest sea. The majority of the 47,000 km. of country roads are unpaved; You can only drive on the asphalt for 1,400 kilometers of them. Despite this handicap, its inhabitants have a reputation for being extremely hospitable.

50 Curiosities of Mongolia

1. Mongolia is the 19th largest country in the world and its area is equivalent to three times that of Spain. But it only has 3.2 million inhabitants.

2. It is one of the 44 countries in the world that has no access to the sea.

3. It is also one of those found at a higher altitude. On average it is 1,580 m.

4. Tradition says that the name of Mongolia comes from the word "Mongol" which means "brave" in their language.

25 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan, language of Mongolia, customs of Mongolia, food of Mongolia

5. In November 1924, the People's Republic of Mongolia became the second communist country in the world.

6. Although in 1961 it was admitted as a country in the United Nations, more than 100 nations of the world did not recognize it until 1987.

7. In 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the transition to the representative democracy that it is today began.

8. To the south of the country is the Gobi desert. "Gobi" means in Mongolian "abandoned steppe".

9. The Gobi Desert is the largest desert in Asia and the fifth largest in the world.

25 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan, language of Mongolia, customs of Mongolia, food of Mongolia 1

Desert of Gobi

10. There are two Mongolias, the so-called outside Mongolia, of which we are referring these curiosities, and the Inner Mongolia which is an autonomous region of China.

eleven. Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia , due to its geographical location and the climatic characteristics that surround it, it is the capital of the coldest country in the world.

12. The capital of Mongolia has changed its name numerous times over the centuries. Its current name "Ulaan Bator" means "red hero" in the Mongolian language and was put in honor of the national hero Sukhe Bator.

50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan

Ulaanbaatar

13. In Ulan Bator, 1.4 million people live, which represents almost half of the country's population.

14 The Mongolian language It is Mongolian and 95% of the population speaks it. However, there are different dialects of the official language.

15. The Mongolian is an Ural-Altaic language and shares its origin with Turkish, Finnish, Kazakh, Uzbek or Korean, for example.

16. In the Turkish areas, in the western part of the country, in addition to the Mongolian, the inhabitants speak some Turkish languages.

17. The Mongolian language , the Mongol, is written in a Cyrillic alphabet that comes from Russian, although formerly there was a Mongolian script of its own that the current government tries to rescue and teach in schools.

18 Genghis Khan He has been elected one of the 25 most important political leaders in the history of mankind.

19 Genghis Khan He was the great Mongol warrior and conqueror who unified the nomadic tribes. It was born near the current Ulaanbaatar in 1162 and created an empire that came from Eastern Europe to the Pacific Ocean.

25 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan, language of Mongolia, customs of Mongolia, food of Mongolia

20. It is considered that Genghis Khan is the "Father" of more than 16 million Asians . The geneticists have traced a chromosomal variant transmitted by male line that curiously share almost 17 million men in Asia. They all share a common ancestor dating from the thirteenth century.

21. The Mongols at the orders of Genghis Khan were probably responsible for the arrival in Europe of gunpowder and firearms, by bringing in his army a unit of specialists in Chinese catapults.

22. Do not look in Mongolia for the tomb of Genghis Khan. When he died, in 1227, he asked to be buried in an unnamed grave.

23. Kublai Khan was a grandson of Genghis Khan and he was the last great emperor of Mongolia. He died in 1294.

24. As a country with a nomadic tradition, its cuisine is based on meat and dairy products.

25 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan, language of Mongolia, customs of Mongolia, food of Mongolia 2

25. The most used meat in the Mongolian cuisine It is the lamb and the camel, although in the desert areas do not disgust a good yak and, moreover, the eyes of sheep are considered a delicacy.

26. Among the curiosities of Mongolia There is the absence of vegetables in their traditional diet. The vegetable began to enter the Mongolian food from the middle of the 20th century.

27. The typical dishes of the Mongolian food they are the "buuz", which is a kind of meatball, the "Khuushuur", a bread that is stuffed with meat, the "khorkhog" a meat stew and the "boortsog" a dessert similar to donuts.

25 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan, language of Mongolia, customs of Mongolia, food of Mongolia 3

28. The typical drink of the country is the " airag " or " kumis "which is made with fermented mare's milk.

29. The Mongols are experts in the milking of mares, a task that is apparently extremely difficult and requires a process to deceive the animal and get it to believe that it is the foal is that it extracts the milk.

30. The snow leopard is native to Mongolia and one third of the world's animals live in its territory. These animals do not roar or purr.

50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan

31. Another animal that comes from this country is the Bactrian camel. It is more robust and with hair thicker and longer than its Arabian companions to defend itself as much from the sun as from the cold of the steppes and rocky deserts.

32. One of the curiosities of Mongolia is the song "khöömii" which is a throat singing that involves emitting two or three tones at a time with the voice.

33. Among the curiosities of Mongolia is his traditional costume called "deel". It is similar to a caftan or tunic and can be silk, brocade or more commonly cotton.

3. 4. The indigenous horses of Mongolia are called " takhi " , which in Mongolian means "spirit". It is the only subspecies of really wild horses left on the planet and at present there are only 1,500 specimens that live in two national parks, one in Mongolia and the other in China.

35. The Naadam Festival It is one of the traditions of Mongolia More popular. It attracts many tourists and it is a large sporting event. The National Day is celebrated in the month of July.

50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan 4

Naadam Festival.

36. The most important sports played at that festival are known as "the three men's games" and they are archery, wrestling and horse racing.

37. The fight or "bökh" is one of the customs of Mongolia Older. There are Chinese records of the seventh century in which there is already talk of practicing that sport.

38. Many nomadic Mongolians still live in a "ger" or "yurt" which is the traditional portable dwelling in the steppes of Central Asia. Among the nomadic peoples, the " Reno Town "Whose way of life was about to disappear during the Soviet domination.

25 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan, language of Mongolia, customs of Mongolia, food of Mongolia

39. The "hadag" or "khata" is another of the customs of Mongolia . It is a silk scarf, usually white, blue, gold or orange, which is given as a sign of respect to a religious leader, a person of importance or as an offering in the Lamaist temples.

40. The predominant religion in the country is Tibetan Buddhism.

41. For every inhabitant of Mongolia there are 13 horses and 35 sheep.

42. One of the curiosities of Mongolia is that there are more Mongols living abroad than in the country. Almost 4 million Mongols live outside.

43. Mongolia has a very young population. 36% are under 18 years old.

50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan

44. Mongolia is the second world producer of the highly valued goat wool from Kashmir, one of the mildest in the world.

45. There is a belief that ice cream was invented in Mongolia. The Mongol horsemen filled guts of animals with provisions to transport them and be able to consume them later. Among those foods were creams made from milk. When galloping the cream stirred strongly and the cold made it freeze, so they say that the ice cream was born, which they then took to China and from there, Marco Polo, to Italy.

46. ​​The Mongolian flag It has three vertical bands of red, blue and red. In the red band near the hoist is the "Soyombo" in yellow, it is the symbol of the Bogd Khan monarchy, which was adopted as the national symbol when the flag was created in 1992.

50 Curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan 5

47. The country is prone to earthquakes, some of them of great magnitude, but due to the low population density they usually do not have important consequences.

48. Regarding the rules of education, the Mongols consider it impolite to point the finger or shout.

49. In Mongolia they are also superstitious. They think it's bad luck to stand or talk on the threshold of a door and light a cigarette with the fire of a candle.

50. The last of these curiosities of Mongolia makes reference to the poetic name by which it is known: "The land of the blue sky". This is due to the fact that annually it has more than 260 sunny days.

Other Curiosities of Asia | By Countries

Have you been surprised by these curiosities of Mongolia ? If you're fascinated by Asian countries, you can not miss the following curiosities of Asia in general, distributed by countries. Surely you will be interested and surprised as much as the previous ones! Discover them!

  • Curiosities of the Philippines
  • Curiosities of Georgia
  • Curiosities of Jordan
  • Curiosities of Turkey
  • Curiosities of China
  • Curiosities of Japan
  • Curiosities of North Korea
  • Curiosities of South Korea
  • Curiosities of Russia
  • Curiosities of Thailand
  • Curiosities of India
  • Curiosities of Nepal

Did you know these curiosities of Mongolia, the country of Genghis Khan ? Have you been surprised to learn that it is a country with such a young population and that they maintain such a traditional way of life? We really want to visit the country! If you know some curious data of Mongolia that we have not mentioned, share it with us and we can expand the list!

Images: Adage , Marcin Konsek


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