Mongolian Outback: Day 10 Karakorum & the Erdene Zuu Monastery

On our tenth day we packed our backpacks, stuffed our sleeping bags, and reboarded the Hyundai for another day of driving. Today we would go to the amazing Erdene Zuu Monastery. Erdene Zuu was built in 1585 next to and largely from the ruins of Karakorum, the ancient capital of the Mongol Empire under Genghis and Ogedei Khan.

Walking in and around Erdene Zuu, fills you with the feeling of the power that the Mongols once held. The place is huge, surrounded by think, tall, 420 meter long walls speckled with 108 (a sacred number in Buddhism & the number of sections in Buddhist prayer beads) stupas. It is the oldest surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. At its height, the Erdene Zuu Monastery housed 60 temples, 300 gers, and 1,000 monks. During Stalin’s reign, the place was largely destroyed except for 3 temples, a stupa and the walls. The diversity of architecture inside was stark. This was the first time I visited a temple built in the traditional Tibetan style.

As we walked around for hours, the rain interrupted us a few times and we had to find a place to hide. During one of these times I took some shots of Milagro from beneath the large monastery gates which was neat.

And Soldad, Tuya, and Vicente played around.  Again, look at how big and open this places.  So neat.

I’d watched Marco Polo on Netflix and was bummed that it wasn’t renewed after 2 years. However, I can understand given its 9 figure budget. While Erdene Zuu wasn’t contemporaneas with the show, the architecture and feeling of the place is. The place just feels like Mongol power.

Outside the monastery were some shops were you could buy souvenirs (we picked up some metalwork), grab snacks, and even dress up in traditional Mongolian garb. Oh yeah…

In addition to all of this, there were golden eagles that you could hold. Whoa! Now that is unique. While we didn’t travel there ourselves, in the far west region of Mongolia people still hunt with golden eagles. Seeing and feeling these birds close up is awe inspiring.  Look how big the eagle is next to Milagro.

Our camp was slightly outside the town of Kharkhorin, a town of 13,000 inhabitants. The family running this ger camp happened to live in a house type structure with an area to eat inside. That night one of the local kids played the morin khuur, a traditional Mongolian instrument also known as the horsehead fiddle and sang.  If you listen around the 1/3 or 1/2 way point you'll hear him throat singing.

We passed our 10th and final night together in another single room ger.