Altai Tavan Bogd National Park & Ölgii Tours & Holidays

A spectacular tableau of snow-capped mountains, alpine lakes and beautiful valleys, Mongolia’s Altai Tavan Bogd National Park is home to the highest peaks in the country. Covering around 630,000 hectares and sacred to the local Kazakh people, it stretches from Russia and along the Chinese border, providing a rich haven for snow leopards, wolves and golden eagles. Dominated by the towering presence of Küiten Uul (4374 m), the highest of the ‘Five Saints’ that gives the park its name, it can also boast several waterfalls, no fewer than 34 glaciers and three large freshwater lakes. Inhabited for around 12,000 years, its rocks and valleys are filled with tens of thousands of petroglyphs that constitute a large part of the extensive Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ölgii is the capital of the Bayan-Ölgii Aimag (province), and the city’s dramatic location, sandwiched between the peaks of the Altai Mountains and the waters of the Khovd River, makes it an ideal gateway city on to the impressive landscapes of the Altai Tavan Bogd National Park. This region was home to the Kazakhs long before the founding of modern Mongolia in 1911 and it was a centre of Islamic teaching and culture before the religious purges of the 1930s. Known for its Kazakh embroidery and Kazakh music, the city also plays host each year to the famous Golden Eagle Festival.