- Where
- Upper Orkhon Valley
Övörkhangai Province, Mongolia - Coordinates
- 47.2103° N
102.8478° E - Capital
- Mongol Empire, 1235–1260
(founded 1220; Wikipedia) - Erdene Zuu
- Founded 1585
from the city’s stones - UNESCO
- Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape
2004 - From Ulaanbaatar
- About 320 km west
(Wikipedia; further by road) - Advisory
- Mongolia Level 1
Drove all day over rolling grass, past horses and round white tents like dropped sugar lumps, to a long wall set with rows of white towers. Outside it, a stone turtle sat with its chin up and a blue silk scarf knotted at its neck, keeping watch over nothing at all. I said good afternoon to it before I had decided to, and it seemed to expect that.
The short answer
Kharkhorin is a small town and district centre in Övörkhangai Province, central Mongolia, where the easternmost foothills of the Khangai Mountains meet the rolling steppe; Wikipedia gives its population as 14,765 in 2017. Beside it lie the ruins of Karakorum, which Wikipedia describes as the capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260, and the Erdene Zuu Monastery, founded in 1585 and probably the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. Both are part of the Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape, inscribed by UNESCO in 2004: 121,967 hectares of pasture on both banks of the Orkhon River, still grazed by nomadic herders, which UNESCO describes as including Kharkhorum, the 13th- and 14th-century capital of Genghis Khan’s empire. Of the city itself almost nothing stands.
Why it's worth knowing
Karakorum was where the world came to the khan. Wikipedia records that Genghis Khan gathered his troops here in 1218–19 and that the city’s founding is usually dated to 1220, but that it was little more than a town of tents until 1235, when his son and successor Ögedei built walls and a fixed palace. The Flemish Franciscan William of Rubruck, who reached it in 1254, thought it smaller than the village of Saint-Denis outside Paris, but described a cosmopolitan and tolerant city with four gates, a quarter of houses for “Saracens” and another for the people of “Cathay”, twelve temples, two mosques and a Nestorian church. In the palace stood a silver tree made by Guillaume Boucher, a Parisian goldsmith brought to Mongolia as a captive: at a signal, a mechanical angel raised a trumpet and drinks poured from the mouths of serpents coiled round the trunk.
The city did not last. After the empire divided in 1260, Kublai Khan built a new capital at Dadu, present-day Beijing, and Karakorum became a provincial centre. Ming armies occupied it in 1372 and razed it in 1380, Wikipedia records, and it was finally abandoned in the 16th century. Then the stones were reused. In 1585 Abtai Sain Khan, ruler of the Khalkha Mongols, founded Erdene Zuu with stones and bricks from the ruins; fragments of the city’s inscriptions have been found built into the monastery’s walls, and Wikipedia records that the khan’s palace is now thought to have stood on the very site.
The field notes
The turtles
What the city left in the grass are its stone turtles. The German Archaeological Institute, which has worked at Karakorum with Mongolian colleagues since 1999, describes one as a granite tortoise erected as the base for an inscription, with Erdene Zuu behind it. Mongolia’s nomination file for the World Heritage listing names the “memorials of four stone turtles” of the city, and Lonely Planet describes the turtles as having marked its boundaries, each once carrying an inscribed stone tablet on its back. The easiest to find, by Lonely Planet’s directions, is about 300 metres north-west of the monastery’s northern gate. Wikipedia’s article on such tortoise-borne stones traces the form in Mongolia back to the late 6th century and records that Yuan-era examples survive at Karakorum.
A monastery built from a city
Erdene Zuu was founded after Abtai Sain Khan’s meeting with the third Dalai Lama, Wikipedia records. Its planners meant its outer wall to resemble a Buddhist rosary of 108 stupas, an aim Wikipedia says was probably never achieved; the wall, with its rows of white stupas, is now the monastery’s best-known sight. It was damaged in war in 1688. In 1939 the communist leader Khorloogiin Choibalsan ordered it destroyed, in a purge that wrecked hundreds of monasteries across Mongolia and killed more than ten thousand monks; three small temples and the outer wall survived. By 1944, Wikipedia says, Stalin pressed for it to be kept as a showpiece for foreign visitors, and in 1947 the temples became museums. After 1990 the monastery was returned to the lamas, and it is again an active Buddhist monastery as well as a museum.
Digging up the capital
For centuries even the city’s exact location was uncertain. Wikipedia credits Nikolai Yadrintsev with identifying the site conclusively in 1889; the first excavations followed in 1933–34. The Mongolian-German Karakorum Expedition, digging since 1999, showed that the building long taken for Ögedei’s palace was in fact a large three-storey Buddhist temple, the German Archaeological Institute reports, with a great stupa at its centre. Finds from the excavations are shown in the Kharakhorum Museum in the town, built with Japanese funding and opened in 2011; Wikipedia records 3,128 artefacts in its collection in 2020.
The wall of Erdene Zuu, set with white stupas. The plan called for 108.
Photograph: Rob Oo · Holy wall (48984667297) · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
Outside the monastery wall, the grassland near the ancient city of Karakorum.
Photograph: Jonashtand · CC BY-SA 4.0
Red-plastered walls and a gate with carved roof ridges inside Erdene Zuu, Kharkhorin.
Photograph: Bernard Gagnon · CC0
Stupas with green-tiled roofs among the temples of Erdene Zuu.
Photograph: Bernard Gagnon · CC0
- Leave the monastery by its back gate and find the turtle on foot, through the grass, the slow way.
- Inside the walls, speak at the volume of the people who live and pray there, and leave the doorways to the monks.
- See the museum in the town before the ruins. The grass makes far more sense once you have seen what came out of it.
- Bring the list on a board with a clip. The wind here reads everything, and the only flat desk for miles has a turtle under it.
- Sleep a night in a felt tent near the river, and step outside after dark to see how many stars an empty capital can hold.
A stone turtle. One of the granite tortoises set up in Karakorum as bases for the city’s inscribed stone tablets, now sitting in the short grass outside the wall of Erdene Zuu with its head raised. The tablet it carried on its back is gone, and so are the palace, the temples, the mosques and the silver tree. The turtle stayed where it was put.
Tally, in the marginMy first page calls it resting. The second, written by the gate on the way out, says waiting, and draws the bare back very large, where the inscribed stone used to stand. The second page is the one I believe.
Getting there
How to get there. Kharkhorin is reached by paved road from Ulaanbaatar; Wikipedia places the Orkhon Valley about 320 km west of the capital, and the drive takes most of a day. Most visitors come with a driver or a tour; the Orkhon waterfall and the Tövkhön hermitage, further up the valley, can be added. Wikipedia lists a small airport with an unpaved runway.
When to go. Summer and early autumn. Wikipedia gives the town a dry-winter semi-arid climate and records that its heating season runs from mid-September to mid-May, which says most of what you need to know about the rest of the year.
What to arrange ahead. A driver from Ulaanbaatar, and a bed in a guesthouse or a ger camp near the town. Allow a full day for the monastery, the turtles and the museum.
Safety. The State Department has Mongolia at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level, describing it as generally a safe destination and recommending insurance for anyone planning outdoor activities. The Russian border, which carries a Level 4 advisory, is more than 300 km to the north.
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Common questions
What is Kharkhorin?
Kharkhorin is a town in Övörkhangai Province, central Mongolia, on the edge of the Orkhon Valley. It stands beside the ruins of Karakorum, capital of the Mongol Empire under Ögedei Khan from 1235, and the Erdene Zuu Monastery, founded in 1585. Both are part of UNESCO’s Orkhon Valley Cultural Landscape, inscribed in 2004.
Where was Karakorum, the Mongol capital?
Karakorum, capital of the Mongol Empire between 1235 and 1260 by Wikipedia’s dates, stood in the upper Orkhon Valley of central Mongolia, beside the present town of Kharkhorin. Its site was identified conclusively in 1889, and the Erdene Zuu Monastery now stands on part of it.
What are the stone turtles of Karakorum?
The stone turtles of Karakorum are granite tortoises that once served as bases for inscribed stone tablets in the Mongol capital. The German Archaeological Institute describes one as an inscription base; Mongolia’s World Heritage nomination names four, and Lonely Planet says they marked the city’s boundaries. The best known sits in the grass north-west of Erdene Zuu.
What is Erdene Zuu Monastery?
Erdene Zuu is a Buddhist monastery at Kharkhorin, Mongolia, founded in 1585 by Abtai Sain Khan with stones from the ruins of Karakorum. Its wall was planned with 108 stupas. It was largely destroyed in the 1939 purge, became a museum in 1947, and since 1990 has again been an active monastery.
Why is so little left of Karakorum?
Karakorum lost its role when Kublai Khan moved his capital to Dadu, present-day Beijing, after 1260. Ming armies occupied the city in 1372 and razed it in 1380, according to Wikipedia, and in 1585 much of its stone and brick was reused to build the Erdene Zuu Monastery beside the site.
What was the Silver Tree of Karakorum?
The Silver Tree of Karakorum was a fountain in the khan’s palace, made by the Parisian goldsmith Guillaume Boucher, who had been brought to Mongolia as a captive. William of Rubruck, who saw it in 1254, described a mechanical angel that blew a trumpet, after which drinks poured from serpents coiled round the trunk.
How do you get to Kharkhorin?
Kharkhorin is reached by paved road from Ulaanbaatar, most of a day’s drive; Wikipedia places the Orkhon Valley about 320 km west of the capital. Most visitors travel with a driver or a tour, and stay in a guesthouse or ger camp near the town.
Is Mongolia safe to visit?
The U.S. State Department has Mongolia at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level, and describes it as generally a safe destination for travellers (advisory dated 29 July 2026). It recommends travel insurance, especially for anyone planning outdoor activities.