Met early this morning with Dr G (and her good friend Ariuka!) and Dr Khaliuna to go to the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park and to see the famous Chinggis Khaan statue near Erdene. Unfortunately Dr K only had time to say hi and then had to go back for her son’s 16th birthday party.
It took us about 45 mins to drive from the Oasis Guest House to the statue. It was much bigger than we expected and much more impressive. The statue and base was completed in 2009 but the rest of the complex including 200 ger camps are still under construction. It is a massive project and one that the Mongolians are rightly proud of. The horse and figure are made of a steel frame which is clad in stainless steel.
To get to the statue you drive through an entrance gateway.
As you get closer you see how large it is. The base, which is also a museum, visitor centre and conference facility is 10m high while the statue itself is another 40m.
You go up inside the statue in a lift and then walk out through steps in the chest of the horse to get a view out over the complex and a full view of Chinggis Khaan’s face.
Inside the visitor centre is a huge leather boot that is made in the same scale as the statue.
After leaving the statue complex we backtracked slightly towards UB and then turned into the road to the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park. First stop was a natural stone feature called Turtle Rock …. can’t imagine why!
Just by the rock formation was a sad little building in a great location …. just crying out to be refurbished! A new one had been built, but in typical Mongolian fashion the old one was left in position for later!
Dr G and Ariuka had been dancing until 4 am and so were getting tired now. While we were looking around turtle rock they were snoozing in the car …. time to go home and leave us in the park for the weekend!
The scenery in the park is lovely, and different to most of the areas that we had seen so far.
Again it is great to see a spot and think .. yes I’ll go there … who needs a road!
We then decided to look for a spot to fish and camp by the river. There was much more in the way of ‘evidence’ of previous campers than the countryside that we have been in away from the city. Still very pretty though.
If we like it here we plan to stay two nights.
troopytracks 